Background
Du Toitskloof Wine Cellar (DTK) was established by six wine farmers as a co-operative winery in 1962. Today it has 22 members whose vineyards all lie within a 10 km radius of the cellar. It is located near the town of Rawsonville in the Breede River Valley, at the entrance to the Du Toitskloof Mountain Pass. The stony soils of the area are ideally suited to grape growing. DTK’s award-winning wines are known for their excellent quality at affordable prices, and during the last five years it has been rated the South African cellar offering the best value by WINE magazine, three times. The cellar produces some 10 million litres of wine a year from 13 500 tons of grapes, of which 60% is white and 40%, red. Its major white cultivar is Sauvignon blanc, followed by Chardonnay, Chenin blanc and Semillon. The main red cultivars are Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Merlot and Pinotage.

In the vineyards
All the grapes for this blend came from within 5 km of the Du Toitskloof cellar. The vines, grafted on to Richter 99, 110 and 114 rootstock and grown in alluvial soils to achieve more fruity vines. Based on soil moisture levels as measured by neutron hydrometers in the vineyards, controlled irrigation is applied, thereby also ensuring small berries with an excellent skin to fruit ratio providing an intense colour and flavour spectrum. Grapes selected from both trellised and bush vine vineyards and were picked when they reached optimum physiological ripeness.

In the cellar
The grapes were sourced from trellised vineyards and bush vines, and picked fully ripe at 24° - 25° Balling. The grapes were cold soaked at 12°C - 15°C for 48 hours to extract maximum flavour and create softer tannins. The juice was then left on the lees, inoculated with selected yeast strains and fermented dry over a period of seven to eight days in rotor tanks which were rotated three times a day to extract maximum colour from the skins. After fermentation the wine underwent malolactic fermentation where it was matured for eight months using French oak staves. After cold stabilisation the wine was filtered twice before bottling.