vintage wine
-Please contact us by e-mail, telephone or by Fax for more details
of the products and services described in this web site.
Vintage wine is not only vintage because it was made many years ago although vintage bottles are often laid down for a few years the reason for the name is the way in which the wine is made. A vintage bottle of wine is called so because it has been created using only grapes that were grown from a specific year. So if you were making a nineteen ninety nine vintage you could only use grapes that were grown in that year. Some wine producing countries has strict laws about what percentage of year specific grape goes into a vintage, for example. In the United States the law states that a vintage bottle must contain no less that ninety five percent of the same year grape where as in Europe the law is only eighty five percent and some places in the world are less, so for a pure vintage just a little bit of research will go a long way.
The Ernie Ells is a joint venture between long standing friends Ernie Ells and Jean Engelbrecht. The different clones of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot are kept separate throughout vinification. Vinified in three hundred litre French oak barrels for twenty months, the wine underwent bottle maturation for a further eighteen months. This wine is made in a full robust style and has the potential to age in excess of twenty years. Earthy and mineral, wild berries, mocha, this wine is forever changing in the glass. Firm tannins and French Oak seamlessly integrated, with dried fruit flavours that linger nicely on the slightly dry finish. Larger than life tannins will ensure good ageing.