JJ Handmade Eight Pillars 2020

This wine offers white pepper spice and some lifted violet notes on the nose with a dark brooding undertone. These flavours carry forward to a spicy palate, with some gamey notes at first followed through by a structured velvet aftertaste crafted by the Bordeaux varieties. Food pairing: This JJ Handmade Reserve will compliment North Indian Curries or other spicy dishes; the Pinotage evident enough to balance strong food flavours.

The grapes are harvested from a combination of older bush vines – all 30 years plus. Syrah, Bordeaux grape components and Pinotage from Stellenbosch, Grenache from Piekenierskloof and Cinsaut and Carignan from the Swartland.

Grapes are picked between 24 and 26 Balling, - NO crushing of the grapes is allowed and wild yeast fermentation techniques applied. 34% is whole bunch fermented. The wine is then drained from the skins through a gravity drip system to the bottom of the cellar where the barrel room is. Here it finishes malolactic fermentation and ages for about 18 months in 20% French oak, where after the best barrels are selected, blended and put back into barrels for another 6 months.