Dornier Donatus Red

Vintage:

2009

Origin:

Stellenbosch

Varieties:

Cabernet Sauvignon 88% / Malbec 8% / Cabernet franc 4%

John Platter 4.5 Stars

Wine Current 4.5 Stars

Eno World Wine 5 Stars

IWSC Silver

With DONATUS, we strive to create a red premium blend showing both a distinctive local character and our individual style. We achieve this with a careful selection of fruit from our healthy vineyards. All wines are fermented and aged in separate batches and skilfully blended after a long ageing process. There are no standard blending components; consistency is only to be achieved in quality and style. DONATUS offers the best of old world classic concentration and new world boldness.

Tasting Notes:

As 2009 was a fantastic year we were blessed with great fruit concentration along with fine structured tannins. The wine possesses a rich red berry character, with hints of chocolate and spice on the nose. The palate is complex yet elegant, with sweet fruit flavours and a hint of mocha, enhanced by a full tannin structure, balanced acidity and lingering finish.

Vintage Conditions:

The 2009 vintage was hailed as one of the best vintages since 2003. Moderately warm climatic conditions prevailed throughout the growing seasons with relatively little rain, which resulted in very even vine growth. These characteristics are extremely desirable for top quality fruit production. Crop levels were slightly lower than previous years which lead to more intense fruit expression.

Fermentation and Ageing:

For this exceptional blend we utilised only three premium vineyards on our property both with outstanding quality of fruit year after year. As we recognised their potential early we were able to maximize our winemaking efforts in order to express the best characteristics of each variety. Cold soaking was followed by a gentle fermentation with pump overs performed twice daily. The grapes remained on the skins for a further two weeks in order to gain complexity and overall tannin structure. Each batch then spent 14 months in 40% New French oak barrels before careful blending.

Food Pairing:

Excellent with rich red meat dishes, slow cooked in a red wine jus. It also has to be mentioned that this wine pairs particularly well with dishes that have an element of earthiness. This can be derived from either fresh mushrooms or certain vegetable acc

Alcohol:

14.5%

Residual Sugar:

1.9 g/L

Total Acid:

6.6 g/L

Final pH:

3.56

VA:

0.57 g/l

Printable Tasting Notes: