The wine is made from the second oldest registered red wine vineyard in the country, planted in 1932 by Koos Lötter on his farm in Franschhoek. These old bush vines are dryland farmed and produce really exceptional fruit. The soils are decomposed granite with underlying sandstone, which gives this wine its elegance and finesse.

The build up to the growing season was very wet, with record rainfalls in July to September which led to well saturated water tables. That was the last rains for the growing season. I will remember this growing season as probably the windiest season I have experienced so far. This had a massive effect on the flowering season and dried out the topsoil quickly. These dry conditions, even though temperature wise it wasn’t that hot of a vintages, caused an early vintage where everything was ripe altogether.  The wines show unbelievable depth and intense fruit concentration. The red wines have in general a darker fruit expression on the nose and the colour to back it. The tannins are dense, compact and all the wines have this old world feel to them.

Grapes were 100% wholebunch fermented with gentle punchdowns for 2 weeks to protect the delicate tannins. One, 10 year old, 600L barrel is all the vintage could deliver after devastating damage to the crop by weevils in December.
This made Lukas pay extra careful attention to the precious grapes and the result is absolutely incredible. Perfume, black and blue fruit concentration, spiced cherries and sweet tobacco leaf with a slightly rustic tannin structure. Probably the best to date from this heritage vineyard planted in 1932.

ANALYSIS: ALC 13.05% | RS 1.7 g/l | TA 5.2 g/l | pH 3.53