The Fledge & Co. Jikken Barrels Praeteritus Bosstok Tinta Barocca 2020

Tinta Barocca, the forgotten workhorse of the SA wine industry, with a mere 200Ha remaining resolutely rooted in the harsh landscape of the Cape. A vine & wine which has been apart of our journey in wine from the start. Dry farmed gnarled bush vines on the lower slopes of the Paardeberg wedged into granitic soils in 1971 & traditionally vinified. Resplendently purple with typical Tinta notes of ripe plum, tilled earth, pink 'n purple flowers, hints of spice & generous savoury sweet chalky finish. Enjoy with rustic country fare, charcuterie 'n fromage or on its own. 250 cases crafted

Dry farmed bush vines planted on highly decomposed Paardeberg granitic soil plantedin 1971. Ultra typical Paardeberg climatic conditions - hopefully cool wet winters, with blistering summers mildly mitigated with westerly winds off the Atlantic. Harvested end March with the fruit still in pristine condition. An ideal climate & terroir for cultivating Portuguese varieties - but so is much of the Cape.

Highly weathered & decomposed ancient granitic based soils derived from the granitic outcroppings now know as the Paarderberg. High silica content in the highly weathered soil with some ironstone spread in the substrate & a clay layer deep below allowing for dry land farming.

Hand harvested at dawn, end-March in pristine conditions. It was one of our last picks of the vintage & occurred on an overcast and misty morning with the team picking our 3 tons within an hour. The fruit was transported to the cellar in temperature controlled truck, crushed & destemmed in lagar, vilified traditionally & matured in old French oak. A single barrique was bottled, unfined & unfiltered.

All fruit was crushed & destemmed into a small lagar, inoculated with a Pinot Noir yeast strain (our cellar is old & we can't take chances), cool fermented & gentle manual pipeage done throughout the 6 day ferment. Free-run drained to barrel & gentle pressing also taken to barrel for MLF. Post-MLF the wine was racked into 500L old French oak barrels for 18 month maturation prior to barrel selection & bottling lightly filtered.

Matured for 18 months in old French oak barrique to temper the wine a bit.