McFarlane Wines - Capitoline Red, Western Cape, South Africa (2022)

TASTING NOTES

Red berries, crushed white pepper and crunchy spices. The palate has fleshy red fruit supported by fresh acidity and some crunchy whole bunch tannin. 

Three different portions of Cinsault go into this wine all hailing from old vine bush vine blocks. Each portion is picked around 21.5-22.5 Brix so the final wine is driven by fresh red fruit and lots of spice. The grapes are harvested by hand and driven to the cellar where they spend a night in the chiller before processing the following day.

The whole bunch clusters are sorted by hand before being placed into a small open top fermenter where they are then foot stomped. Natural and commercial yeast were used here, fermentation took 10 days to finish with 3 gentle punch downs per day. Once dry the wine was pressed off skins to tank for settling overnight before being racked to big old french barrels for 9 months of maturation before blending. Once the wine is racked and blended the wine was filtered before it went to bottle.

Winemaker Alexandra McFarlane worked at some prestigious brands overseas (such as Henschke in the Barossa Valley, Australia), returning to Stellenbosch in 2014 to work for Johan Jordaan at Spier.