Black Pearl The Mischief Maker 2020

60% Shiraz
23% Grenache
17% Mourvedre
The Shiraz, while it has a lot of black plum notes, also has nice peppery spiciness while the Mourvedre adds a graphite note to the aromatics and the Grenache adds white spice notes.
91 pts Decanter
90 pts James Suckling
Fruit for this wine was hand picked into 30lb crates with bunch selection done in the vineyard and on a sorting tray before a gentle crushing and destemming – then transferred to small open tanks. Grapes were cooled to about 40 degrees F for cold soaking. Once temperature rose naturally to about 60 degrees, cultured yeast was added. Wild ferments with this style of wine are risky – hence cultured yeast option. Open tank punch downs were done gently by hand, 3X daily for the duration of the ferment. Grapes were then pressed in a traditional 1 ton basket press. From there, the juice went straight to 300 liter barrels – mainly French and 2nd & 3rd fill primarily – for 1 year, during which time the wine was racked 2-3 times. Bottling is always unfined and very seldom filtered. This vintage was 60/23/17 Shiraz, Grenache, Mourvedre but that assemblage changes every year. Roughly 500cs were made. Black Pearl Vineyards is a single unirrigated vineyard on the slopes of Paarl Mountain.