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This wine is a pure and natural expression of this special vineyard site. The nose is crammed full of ripe red fruit framed with soft spicy oak with hints of fennel, mint, cinnamon and chocolate. On the palate the wine is soft and accessible with juicy generous tannin and balanced acidity. The flavours are complex and intense with cassis, mocha and strawberry. A delicious, complex and rewarding wine.
THE BERRIO PROJECT
Introduction
The Berrio Project is an icon winemaking venture. The three ingredients are Francis Pratt (winegrower), Bruce Jack (Flagstone winemaker) and a very special corner of the universe, Elim.
History
Bruce and Francis spent much of their youth at a little fishing village on the southern limestone edge of Africa, called Arniston – aquamarine seas, cool summers, limestone smugglers’ caves, the engulfing blueness of the sky, warm white sand beaches, fresh shellfish and surfing. Everyday here is an adventure of the senses.
As life marched carelessly on Francis started farming nearby just outside a hamlet called Elim at the southern tip of Africa. Bruce went on a global search of wine knowledge, that took him from France to California and Australia. While Bruce was studying Oenology and Viticulture at Adelaide University, South Australia, Francis was contemplating the planting of vines.
Bruce’s viticultural thesis included an exploration of the viticultural potential of Darling on the West Coast and Elim on the southern tip of Africa.
When he returned they got together, watched some rugby, braaied some lamb chops and crayfish and started dreaming about capturing the essence of this special place in a bottle of wine.
The Philosophy
What we do is carry into sunlight the spirit of this place, Elim, by growing grapes here. We ask the vine roots to find it for us in the cold, dark remembrance of soil, shale, limestone and clay. We coax the leaves into pulling up the silently vibrating energy from there. This energy is not only the result of organisms living in the soil, but also all the millions of chemical reactions that occur in the rootzone.
But there is more. There is the energy of memory. Mapped in the strata of our ancient soil is the memory of millions of years of life. This energy, this spirit of place, is transported into the grapes by the vine. We harvest these handfuls of time, these bunches of grapes with complete respect.
Each berry is a spiritual snapshot of swirling climate, a sweet memory of the sun, a spinning impression of earth, a quenching recall of moisture, a reminiscence of breathing, a reminder of cycles. This imprint is concentrated and powerful when the grapes are resonant and delicious with ripeness.
In this way we clutch at the secrets, successes and failures of our interaction with nature. Through the miracles of natural, soft and sympathetic fermentation we channel nature’s spontaneous narrative into wine. And so we can taste our enveloping corner of the universe – the co-incidence of geography and time.
We can drink in the wonder of it and share out the majesty of it all. We want to learn to accept the sadness of it and revel in the mystery of it. And perhaps through making wine this way, from this special place, we can begin to understand something of our relationship to the confusing, tumultuous craziness of it all.
This is what we do and why we do it.
The Wines
Our first wines are a Sauvignon Blanc 2002 and a Cabernet Sauvignon 2001.
The Name
The Berrio was the name of the first ship to sail around the southern tip of Africa
Berrio Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 – Western Cape:
Components:
** Cabernet Sauvignon 97%
** Cabernet Franc 3%
Vinification:
Grapes were hand picked from the 11th to the 17th of January 2003 on the farm Moddervlei in Elim – 25.7 – 26.5ºB. Grapes were stored in our cold room overnight and crushed after which all small parts of stems were removed by hand on a sorting table. Different blocks and clones were fermented separately. Cold maceration on the skins for 1 – 2 weeks at 0 – 10ºC, with one cold soak punch down per day. Fermentation takes place in the open top fermenters with punch downs every 4 hours, 24 hours of the day, at 25 – 30ºC. 10% were fermented in opened-up 300L, new American Oak barrels – ea one inoculated with a different yeast strain. Pressing & barreling down is done without the use of pumps – only gravity flow. Wine was matured for 14 months in 2/3 new American Oak barrels and the rest older French- & American Oak. Barrels get stirred once a month to increase lees contact, before the first racking (November 2003). Each individual barrel gets tasted a minimum of three times during the maturation period in order to select the premium ones for Berrio Cabernet Sauvignon 2003. Wine was cross flow (sterile) filtered before bottling in September 2004.
Analysis: Alc: 14.98, RS: 2.78, pH: 3.62, TA: 5.80
TASTING NOTES
This stunning wine made from the Southern-most vineyards is complex on the nose with a combination of red fruit, plums, spices and mineral/earthy undertones. On entry there is a nice crisp acidity with an explosion of fruit on the mid-palate. A creamy roundness supported by elegant tannins fills the palate. The finish is lean and lingering with a hint of liquorice. The Berrio Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 is a complex wine that is well balanced.
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