Eikendal Charisma is an ingenious creation and a red blend living up to its name. The Shiraz (Rhône valley) lends a tight, fresh structure with aromatic and seasoned undertones. The Petit Verdot (Bordeaux) contributes a rich, berry character, and the Sangiovese, in a true Italian style, adds fruity flavours with flair in the palate. The result is a bold, charming, seductive and ultimately elegant wine. Cultivar: 48% Shiraz, 39% Petit Vedot & 13% Sangiovese
Cultivar: 48% Shiraz, 39% Petit Vedot & 13% Sangiovese Vitification: All 3 cultivars are Stellenbosch fruit. Planted in a North/South row direction, 3333 vines per hectare and under irrigation. Irrigation is restricted in order to produce grapes with concentrated characteristics of this special variety. Sugar loading, berry aromatic sequence, PH and TA are used to determine phenolic ripeness and picking dates. Vinification: The grapes were hand-picked into 18kg lug boxes and emptied into a harvest bin. 40% of the shiraz was kept as whole bunches whilst the rest, including the Sangiovese and Petit Verdot were destemmed and put into the crusher mash pump. All 3 cultivars were kept separate until blending before bottling. Cold soaking started, followed by spontaneous fermentation, after which it is inoculated with yeast to assure clean fermentation. 3 – 4 pumpovers per day combined with punch downs and oxygen sparge occurred. After fermentation we add some structure to the wine with 2 weeks of extended maceration, followed with a gentle press to recover 650L per ton. The wine underwent malolactic fermentation in a tank and then racked to barrels for aging. The wine was then aged for 15 months in 300ℓ and 500ℓ French oak barrels.