Rijk’s Reserve Pinotage 2018

On their Tulbagh farm with ‘very unique vertical shale soils’, Tiger Dorrington has taken over the running of the winery founded by his father Neville, and continues the specialisation in pinotage and chenin and the drive ‘to create the highest-quality wines, expressing a sense of place’. Neville remains in his longtime role as viticulturist, working alongside farm manager Daniel Pienaar on projects such as adding mulch in the form of bales and woodchips to vineyard mounds, and planting cover crops tailored to individual blocks.
The historic town of Tulbagh is 120km north east of Cape Town and 90km east of the Atlantic coast in a Mediterranean climate. The valley is surrounded by the Winterhoek, Obiqua and Witzenberg mountains, often snow-capped in winter. Very dry summers with fresh south easterly winds keep vineyards healthy and disease free while the surrounding mountains ensure cool summer nights.

Vines that produced this 100% Pinotage were grown on low yielding, well drained vertical shale/schist. Grapes were night harvested by hand. A forty eight hour cold maceration period was given prior to fermentation to extract colour and fruit. Extraction during fermentation took place by doing manual punch downs three times a day. Skins were gently pressed before fermented dry. Malolactic fermentation took place in barrels after which the wine was matured in 60% new and 40% second fill French oak barrels, then bottled and allowed to age until release.