2020 Tokara Director's Reserve Red

The wine has stunning depth of colour with an intense garnet centre and a ruby rim. The nose showcases complex aromas of dried tobacco leaf, subtle violet flower, dried currants, baking spice and graphite. The wine enters the palate with incredible purity and
focus. Flavours are those of dark cherries, blackberries and ripe plum skin. Sumptuous and full there is a hint of spice on the mid-palate which leads to fine yet dense tannins and a lengthy finish.

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Viticulture

This wine is a blend of 71% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Petit Verdot, 10% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 3% Malbec. The grapes originated from TOKARA’s premium vineyards on the slopes of the Simonsberg Mountain outside of Stellenbosch. Only grapes from the best blocks and from the best parts of these blocks were used. The average yield is between 5 and 8 t/ha. The grapes were hand-picked at optimal ripeness between the 19th of February and the 24th of March

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Vinification

The grapes were de-stemmed, before first passing across a mechanical sorting table and then a further hand sorting table before being crushed directly into tanks for fermentation using gravity feed and no pumps. There is a period of cold maceration for up to 5 days
before the fermentation starts spontaneously (without the use of selected yeast strains). The grapes were fermented in stainless steel and wooden upright (foudre) fermenters. Pump-overs, délestage and punching down of the cap were implemented twice a day for extraction until fermentation was complete. The tanks were given maceration post fermentation if the quality and tannin profile of the wine warranted it. The wine was put to barrel for malolactic fermentation after which it was racked, sulphured and put back to barrel for further maturation. The wine spent a total of twenty-two months in 44% new French oak and 33% second fill - the rest being older French oak barriques. During maturation the wines received four racking’s, all done barrel to barrel. The wine was bottled in January 2022 without fining or filtration. 49,809 x 750ml bottles, 20 x 3L bottles, 12 x 5L bottles, 4 x 9L bottles, 2 x 18L bottles

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Recommendation

Grilled ribeye steak served with Béarnaise sauce, and potato Dauphinoise.