Fairview Primo Pinotage

The grapes were hand harvested at 25.5° brix. The bunches were hand-picked, destalked and hand-sorted to remove raisins and green stems. Fermentation took place in open-top French oak fermenters (foudre) with manual punch down (pigeage) done twice a day. Once alcoholic fermentation was completed, the wine was basket pressed and transferred to French and American oak barrels for malolactic fermentation, with 40% of the barrels being new oak. Once malolactic fermentation was completed, the wine was racked off and returned to a combination of 80% French oak barrels and 20% American oak barrels for further maturation. In total, the wine spent 18 months in oak barrels.