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BEIN MERLOT
2006
bottled in Mai 2007 and matured for another year in our maturation cellar store, before its release in Mai 2008
Classic
dry red wine, produced from the best grapes from our single vineyard Petrus
Place. Complemented with a splash of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc each,
it is matured for one year in 225L barrels from top French cooperages (65% new,
95% French and 5% American oak).
Tasting notes:
This well structured Merlot impresses with good complexity and tasting elegance;
brilliant dark colour; fruit aromas of ripe black berries, plum and cherries and
pleasantly sweet wood flavours of mocha and chocolate with an interesting hint
of smokiness; convincing on the palate with ripe soft tannins and a firm
aftertaste.
This wine develops and opens in the glass and will do so in the cellar for an
expected 5 to 10 years from release (depending on the cellaring conditions).
LITTLE
MERLOT 2006
released August 2007
This wine was matured for one year in third-fill French barrels and blended with
14% of a top quality Cabernet franc from origin Stellenbosch. It is
characterized by a fine cherry fruit in the nose, and together with its smooth
tannis and creamy texture, it offers great drinking pleasure and particularly
good value with its price of only R49.00 per bottle (or R45.00 per bottle in a
case of six!)!
Exclusively available directly from the farm.
Lab Little Merlot 2006: alc 13.8%Vol, extract 31.3 g/l, TA 5.1 g/l, pH
3.68, Total SO2 69 g/lt
Vintage report Bein Merlot
2006 :
May 2007: Final tastings and bottling of Bein merlot 2006
this year, it wasn’t easy to decide on our final assemblage for the Bein
merlot 2006. 8 different batches of Merlot were to assess, from the different
corners of our vineyard and matured in various combinations of different wood
barrels. In addition, several samples of top quality Cabernets were included in
order to find out whether they could complement our Merlot. But after intensive
evaluation of numerous combinations and many flights of blind tastings, we
decided on the final assemblage of our Merlot 2006: all our first fill barrels
and 15% second fill barrels went into our flagship wine Bein Merlot,
complemented with 6% Cabernet franc and 8% Cabernet Sauvignon, yielding
eventually 9600 bottles (from 70% first fill wood). The wine of the remaining
second and third fill barrels went into our Little Merlot, complemented with 14%
Cabernet franc.
The wine was bottled in May 2007, and for the first
time we used an absolutely innovative, new stopper to close our
bottles. It is a novel type of composite cork that does away with any sort of
closure problems such as the villainous cork
taint, leakage problems and other undesired bottle variations. As
traditionalist, this wasn’t an easy
decision for us, but the outlook that in
future, our wine will be as good on your table as we bottled it on our estate,
convinced us quickly. Up to now, we never could completely avoid the occasional corky bottle and other
cork-induced bottle variation, despite our efforts in sourcing only
the best cork material available and even having it analysed our selves extensively in private
laboratories . And the good thing is: The new stopper is still
made from cork (a wonderful natural material), though
treated in a very elaborate but naturally sustainable and chemical-free process
in order to avoid any possible off-flavours in the final product (more
information on www.oeneo.com)
April
2006 till February 2007 : barrel maturation
Currently, our Merlot matures happily
in the barrels. The malolactic fermentation was completed by Mai, and the wine
could be racked the first time already by end of Mai, and since then another two
rackings took place. Racking is a process by which the wine is freed from
precipitated impurities, by careful decanting. However, besides clarification,
racking also leads to an aeration of the young wine, necessary for the
maturation and smoothening of the tannins. This is particularly important in
wines with a higher percentage of new wood, which is the case with this vintage,
where over 50% of the barrels are new. The wine develops well, and we are
looking forward to the final assemblage in January. Like last year, we were
lucky enough to source some excellent Cabernet franc, with which we plan to
complement our “Grand Vin”.
The Blanc de Noir from the bleeding juice was also filtered and bottled mid Mai.
In June we labelled it as PINK MERLOT and made it available for
sale from the farm for an attractive R29.00 per bottle. This wine, a dry but
fruity Rose with a gorgeous pink color, was a great success, and the wine was
quickly sold out within 3 months.
March 2006: Harvest
The harvest took place under ideal climatic conditions between 7th till 14th
of March. Again, the young vines were about one week earlier and harvested
separately. The overall quality of the fruit was very good with sugar
concentrations between 24 and 24.6 Balling (ca 25 % sugar!) and a good natural
acidity. Cuvaison - i.e. alcoholic fermentation and extended skin maceration -
was done for 14 days in our 5000L stainless steel tanks, after which the very
dense and pitch-dark young wine was transferred into the barriques for
malolactic fermentation and further maturation for the next 12 months.
Despite the smaller crop, we “bleeded”
this year – like every year – our Merlot, i.e. we draw of some juice before
fermentation in order to give our main wine some more concentration. With this
free run juice, we produced a Blanc de Noir and fermented it like a white wine
in a small stainless steel tank at 14 degree C, resulting in a refreshingly dry
though fruity nice little Rose.
February 2006
The fruit is this year especially even and beautiful, with particularly
small berries promising good extract in the future wine! Unfortunately, this was
also observed by the birds which flock in by thousands. Having invested already
so much in thinning and manicuring of the bunches, we were not prepared to share
with these uninvited guests and decided to put up bird nettings to protect at
least the most affected areas of our vineyard. Fortunately, it helped and the
birds went for easier accessible fruit to the neighbors vineyards - uff!
Januar 2006
Still very windy, unusual for this time of the year! Veraison (change of
colour) started this year slightly later, around the 10 of January. This is the
time for us to cut out all green grapes as well as later ripening parts like
shoulders and tips of the bunches, such making sure that no unripe fruit will
end up in our wine.
In the meantime, the young wine of the vintage 2005 develops well in the barrel.
It has been racked a last time in the second week of January and blended with a
dash of an exquisite Cabernet franc, which complements our merlot perfectly. It
will now mature for another two month in the barrels before being bottled in
April.
December 2005
Still beautiful weather, with very little precipitation though lots of wind,
drying out our vineyardn mercilessly. As we did last year, we reduced the crop
in the second half of December to 50% by cutting out every second bunch, leaving
again only one bunch per shoot, such promoting the optimal fruit development of
the remaining bunches.
November
2005: Flowering
flowering started with November and was very even and undisturbed. Up to now,
the weather was generally cooler than usual, though with very little
precipitation in our area. For this reason, we decided to start supplementary
irrigation this year earlier in order to anticipate millerandage. On the other
side, the climatic conditions are ideal for Merlot - not too hot and not too
windy - and allow us to reduce disease prophylaxis to the absolute minimum. At
the moment, we are very busy with tipping and the early removal of excessive
leaves and laterals in the lower canopy, in order to promote light exposure in
the fruiting zone.
October
2005: Spring
Spring was unusually cool, with budding being slightly later. Also due to the
cooler weather, overall vegetative growth is moderate, so we had enough time
this year for the actually very labor intensive suckering, the removal of excess
growth.
August 2005: winter time!
It was quite a warm winter, although finally with enough precipitation,
especially towards the end. At last, most dams are filled to a level of 85% or
more, the highest stand in the last 4 years.
In the vineyard, we consistently reduced the numbers of bearers further to 6 per
vine or running meter, in order to achieve a further concentration of our future
crop. These bearers were eventually short-pruned on the 29th of August, just
shortly before budding.
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