Diverse Tokara Wines From the Kingdom of Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon is a significant cornerstone of TOKARA, the prestigious family owned Stellenbosch wine estate, with a diverse selection of consummate wines.
TOKARA’s forward thinking vision for Cabernet Sauvignon from day one after owners GT and Anne-Marie Ferreira acquired the farm, has seen their vineyards on the foothills of the Simonsberg consistently producing exceptional, award winning wines.
“Cabernet Sauvignon has been the original focus variety since the first TOKARA harvest in 2000. Today the estate’s interpretation of this variety incorporates two singular expressions: a flagship blend and a pinnacle cuvée. These wines are true renditions of their terroir and everything the estate stands for – refinement, elegance and balance,” says TOKARA GM, Karl Lambour.
In his 2018 South Africa Report, U.K. wine commentator Tim Atkin singled out two top tier TOKARA Cabernet Sauvignons, the pinnacle cuvée, TELOS, and the Reserve Collection. Also included is the flagship Director’s Reserve blend, all from the 2015 vintage, as his ‘wines of the year’ with scores of 97 and 96 points respectively!!
Stemming from this illustrious lineage, TOKARA Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 is in fine company. As a blend of the diverse Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard sites on the estate, the wine is the quintessential expression of TOKARA’s terroir.
It has inviting berry aromas of cassis, red currant and blueberries with whiffs of cocoa, fresh herbs and tobacco spice. Expect a mouthful of sweet berries, briar fruit and dark chocolate on the palate with hints of dried herbs on the finish.
CROPPING AND HARVESTING
All the vineyards yielded between 3 and 12 t/ha. The grapes is handpicked for optimal ripeness. (Sugars between 24 and 26 brix and acidities between 4 & 7.0 g/l.)
WINEMAKING
The grapes is destemmed. Once destemming takes place it is then transfered to the sorting table. This is to remove any unwanted parts. Crushing is done directly into stainless steel tanks and wooden upright (foudre) fermenters.
The must is cooled to between 10 and 15°C for a cold soak before
fermentation occurs naturally.
Pump-overs, dellastage and punching down of the cap are implemented twice a day for extraction until the fermentation completed. The tanks are given maceration post fermentation if the quality warranted it and depending on tannin extraction and development. The wines are put to barrel for malolactic fermentation after which they are racked and sulphured. When this process is complete it goes back into the barrel for a further maturation.
The wine is put into barrels where it spnds a total time of eighteen months in 20% new French oak. The remaining 80% is in older French oak barriques. During the maturation the components is left on the gross lees for around 8 months before receiving their first racking. After which they are racked another 2 more times.
The wines receives a light fining before filtration and bottling in December 2016.
TASTING NOTES
This wine has a beautiful garnet colour. There are berry aromas of cassis, red currant and blueberries on the nose. There are underlying notes of cocoa, fresh herbs and tobacco spice. The palate is packed with sweet berry fruit, flavours of dark chocolate and briary notes with hints of dried herbs on the finish. The mid-palate is intense leading to a dry textured finish.
This wine will drink well now but will benefit from cellaring and will mature well into 2022.
FOOD PAIRING
Enjoy with grilled veal chops, meaty stews or a fantastic piece of steak.
TOKARA Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 has a cellar door price of R120 per bottle and is available at leading stores countrywide. For online purchases, visit www.tokara.com.
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Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
Press Release