Thelema Merlot Reserve 2005
Price £27.80
Stock Level: 26
| Grape: | Merlot |
| Strength: | 15% |
| Style: | Full Bodied |
| Size: | 750ml |
| Cellar Notes: | Juicy, upfront red fruit and smokey flavours, backed up with surprisingly firm tannins. Wonderfully balanced. Thelema's Merlot Reserve is only made in exceptional vintages. Only the finest parcels are selected from established vines which were planted in 1988 in Hutton soils (decomposed granite) at a density of 3200 vines per ha. Vineyard practices include vertical hedge trellising, spur pruning to 2 buds every 12cms and supplementary drip irrigation. Harvesting was by hand from 19th February to 2nd March and yielded 7t/ha. The whole bunches were de-stalked, hand sorted and crushed into stainless steel tanks where alcoholic fermentation took place at 28 degrees C with pump overs for 6 days and a further 5 days maceration before 100% malo-lactic fermentation and pressing into 100% new French barriques where ageing was for 20 months before bottling. |
| Appearance: | With enormous depth of colour, this wine is almost black in hue. |
| Aromas: | Bursting with pure and concentrated blackcurrant aromas. |
| Palate: | Full bodied and chunky with a well delineated structure of integrated, fine grained tannin and ripe toasty oak encasing the fruit flavours right through to the rounded, lengthy finish. |
| Serving Notes: | Drink with full flavoured dishes such as slow braised lamb shank, roasted wild boar or duck. |
Vineyard notes:
Thelema Mountain Vineyards
Gyles Webb is one of the people who has done his darnedest to accelerate South Africa’s promotion into the top leagues of the wine world. Thelema was established by Gyles and Barbara Webb in 1983 when, with the backing of Barbara’s parents, they purchased the 62 hectare Thelema farm. A winery was completed five years later, and almost immediately, his wines were among the best the country had to offer. Gyles was influenced in his wine–making by visits to Tuscany, Bordeaux and California.
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