Luddite Shiraz 2010

The Verburg family: viticulturist Penny, Cape Winemakers Guild member and winemaker Niels, built their little farm on the Van der Stel Pass overlooking the town of Bot River. Luddite Wines, specializing in shiraz and chenin have developed a product identity that expresses its origins without modern interventions. Niels and Penny met at a friend’s 21st birthday party in 1985, where they discovered that they were both going to be attending Elsenburg Agricultural College in the new year. They became close friends at college, and romance blossomed late one night cramming for exams. After travelling and working overseas the Verburg family returned to South Africa in 1995 with a longing to work on their own small farm. Thirty years later, with three kids and six dogs, the Verburgs are happy on their hill, and Luddite wines has evolved into an established and respected brand.

The 2010 vintage again followed the pattern where even years are warm years. Not only was it warm but also incredibly dry with very little rainfall from November to May of this growing season. This resulted in a small, concentrated crop with great flavour intensity and the harvest being slightly earlier than normal. The overall ripening was very even with all the clonal batches ripening within a week of each other. Four main batches were therefore fermented in large stainless steel tanks with regular pump-overs. Due to a new cooling plant, we were able to do our fermentations between 22 and 24 °C. This resulted in a long, slow fermentation with plenty of time on the skins to build structure. We also allowed the malolactic fermentation to take place on the skins during post maceration after which the wine was pressed into tank.

After settling in tank, the wine was transferred to barrel of which 25% new oak was used. 95% of the barrels were French Oak and 5% Hungarian Oak. The rest of the barrels were 2nd, 3rd and 4th fill. All four batches of wine were kept separately and remained in barrel for 24 months after which we blended the different batches to create the best possible wine for this vintage.

After malolactic fermentation batches of wine showing promise were blended together and pumped into barrel. 30% new oak was used of which 95% of the barrels were French Oak and 5% Hungarian Oak. The rest being 2nd, 3rd and 4th fill.

The wine remained in barrels for 24 months after which we blended all the different batches together to create the best possible wine which was then bottled.