Thelema Merlot Reserve 2003

5 Stars Platter's Wine Guide

This is a barrel selection of our finest merlot. This wine has enormous depth of colour, pure and concentrated blackcurrant flavours and a wonderful silky texture. The tannins are firm at the moment, and the wine will benefit from ageing for another few years.

Food Pairing

Have this with your Christmas roast or duck breast with berry sauce.

Winemaker's Comments

This wine is a blend of the best parcels within our merlot vineyards. A wine well structured and showing extraordinary concentrations of ripe berries and cedar wood.

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Tasting Notes

Viticultural Practices

Varietal	Merlot – Clone 192
Root stock	R99
Soil type	Hutton – decomposed granite
Age of vines	Planted 1988
Plant density	3200 vines per hectare
Trellising	Vertical hedge
Pruning	2-bud spurs every 12cm
Yield	7 t/ha
Irrigation	Supplementary drip
Vintage	Warm, not hot, with a long ripening period.
Picking date	19th - 2nd March
Grape sugar	25 °B
Acidity	6 g/l
pH at harvest	3.6

Winemaking Practices

Yeasts	Bordeaux Red
Fermentation temp	28 °C
Method	De-stalked, hand sorted, crushed, pumped into stainless steel fermentation tanks, cold soak for two days, and pumped over twice a day for 5 days, an aerated pump over in the morning and a closed circulation in the afternoon. After fermentation the wine is left on the skins for 2 days before pressing, once pressed wine is racked to barrel for malolactic fermentation.
Wood maturation	20 months in 100% new French oak barrels

Wine Details

Residual Sugar	1.4 g/l
pH	3.45
Total acid	6.1 g/l
Alcohol	14.11% by volume

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The Current Range

Thelema Cap Classique 2017

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