On arrival at the winery, all grapes were first subjected to a whole cluster selection. This was followed by destemming (without crushing) and then an individual berry selection before being gravity fed to small open-top tanks. An 8 day cold soak (at 5ºC/41ºF) ensued after which time the must was warmed and inoculated with selected yeasts (Assmanhaussen and RC212) and fermented during 18 days with temperatures peaking at 28ºC/82ºF. During fermentation, the vats were hand-plunged twice daily in order to extract the ideal amount of tannin and color. Following the completion of fermentation, the wine was drained off (after a total maceration time of 26 days) and put to into the barrel. The wine was aged for a total of 11 months in French oak barrels (25% of which were new, and 75% of which were second and third use) before being bottled without filtration. Vineyard: All fruit was sourced from our own vineyard – located within the coolest, westernmost reaches of the Casablanca Valley. Sourced from 10 to 13 year old hillside blocks planted with the “Valdivieso” field selection on a red clay mixed with decomposed granite. The blocks used in this blended were cropped at an average of 4.5 tonnes per hectare (1.8t/acre).