Stark-Condé Twin Peak Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 Wine

This is a single-vineyard wine from a relatively high elevation block. This block has well-drained decomposed granite soils and a gentle Southwest-facing slope. The wines made from this vineyard (including our single-vineyard Syrah) always seem to have good ripeness coupled with good natural acidity and a unique floral note that sets it apart from our other blocks of cabernet. There are five different clones within the block, but I usually focus on just three that have quite different characters: clone 46 which is well structured, but with less forward fruit; clone 27 which varies from vintage, but tends to have a firm tannin; and clone 163 which is quite fruit forward. The grapes for this wine were hand-harvested in mid-March. They were picked into small lug boxes and cooled overnight in a refrigerated container to about 12 degrees C., then de-stemmed and carefully hand-sorted and crushed into small open fermentation vats and cold-soaked for 2-3 days until natural fermentation started. The following day they were inoculated with a mix of yeasts, half with a South African strain and the other half with an imported Bordeaux yeast. Regular, vigorous punchdowns were given every 2-4 hours for the first half of fermentation, then every 6-8 hours thereafter. At dryness (average 7 days total), the wine was basket pressed and racked directly to barrel for malo-lactic fermentation and subsequent barrel maturation. A mix of coopers was used, all French oak, all 300 litre, about 70 new and the balance second-fill. The wine was bottled without fining or filtration after 22 months barrel maturation.

2005 was a warm, dry vintage, but without the extremes of weather experienced in 2004. There was some raisoning of berries which required careful sorting. This was one of those vintages that did not really show its true colours until after a year in barrel: at first it was very shy, but slowly the power started to come through. I think it has a very pure cabernet quality and very nice tannins that should reward careful barrel maturation.