The Wanderlust project allows Craig Wessels to flex his creative muscles – the wine changes every year.
Red Field Blend
Appellation: Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley
Vineyard: Bosman Family ‘Clone Garden’
This is a very special, one-of-a-kind vineyard in the Hemel-en-Aarde. The vineyard has over 50 different cultivars used to supply mother material to the Bosman Adama vine nursery. Cuttings of the various clones of each cultivar are used to propagate new vines. This vineyard therefore has to be disease free. Some rows of cultivars are only 30m long.
Vinification
The idea behind this release of Wanderlust was to recreate the traditional field blend, where many different cultivars were planted in one small vineyard and harvested together. For this wine seven red cultivars and one white were harvested on the same day and then co-fermented in an open-top oak vat. After a natural ferment the skins were pressed in our old basket press. The wine was then matured in older French barrels for 18 months and kept in bottle for a further 18 months before release.
Grapes
Cinsault, Malbec, Barbera, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Tinta Barroca, Ruby Cabernet and Roussanne.
Tasting Note
Red and blue fruit, spicy with a graphite edge. Medium bodied, fresh and salty with wonderful fruit purity, a smooth texture and fine and chalky tannins. More serious than one would think. Delicate and balanced with a persistent, dry finish. Drink now however it will further reward after a few years’ ageing. A great food wine.
Alc: 13.61% pH:3.49 TA:5.72 RS:1.8
