Description
Eisen & Viljoen is an elegant, complex, fruit driven, Bordeaux-style red blend with a refined structure made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot grapes grown in selected portions on specific blocks on our estate.
Abundant sunlight helps our vines achieve sufficient bud fertility for us to use hand spur pruning with great success. Shoot and leaf thinning is managed carefully during the summer to achieve desired sun exposure which leads to perfectly balanced grapes at harvest time. Bunch and berry selection in the vineyards takes place a few times between véraison (the onset of ripening) and harvest. Our grapes are always hand harvested in small basket lots during the fresh early morning hours. Harvesting at different ripeness levels gives us more components to work with in the winery and adds to the complexity of our wine.
A combination of natural flavours, grape sugar content, colour and acidity is fundamental to our approach of minimum interference in winemaking. After destemming, the must (juice and skins) is chilled for a period of cold soaking. Fermentation begins naturally as the juice warms up and this is also when the delicate process of hand punch down begins. A unique tool, custom-made out of solid French oak, is used to press down the cap a few times during each day.
Following primary fermentation, the wine remains in the tank on the skins for a further period of extended maceration – a distinctive step in our approach to winemaking. Pressing is another decisive moment for our wine. We use a 1.5 ton, hydraulic basket press in order to enhance our hands on process of pressing. Up to this moment, all press wine is blended to the free run.
We use only French oak barrels, fifty percent new, sourced from a few of the best coopers in France. Secondary fermentation follows in the barrel where our wine matures for the next twenty months.
After careful bottling, Eisen & Viljoen is aged further for approximately twenty four months. Each bottle is then hand waxed and hand labeled on the estate. Two luxurious layers of premium wax, dark plum over rich burgundy red, add a tactile, intimate quality and is a patented technique and design (U.S. Design Patent no. D727,155 S.). Each bottle is hand labeled with hand block-pressed labels. The result of such passion and uncompromising quality, is an elegant, complex, fruit-driven, Bordeaux-style red blend with a refined structure and a sense of volume that comes from soil and site.
Colour: Stunningly deep ruby red-coloured
Aroma: Harmonious notes of black cherries, liquorice, and graphite. Pure and rich aromas which intensify over time reminding of leather, oak, and ripe berries.
Palate: Complex, rich and youthful! A luscious palate reminding of black cherries, cassis, and nuances of cigar box with juicy yet youthful tannins. A well balanced, sophisticated wine with a fresh, lingering finish of absolute complexity.
Vinification and Maturation: Barrel maturation: 22 months. Further ageing in bottle for 48 months prior to release.
Ageing potential: to keep.
