RICHENEAU SHIRAZ 2006
Quite some time ago, my wife was given a bottle of wine by one of her clients. She brought it home and told me that I was not allowed to touch this bottle. Some months passed and one night, not to long ago, I took the liberty of saying "Liefie dink jy nie ons moet maar die bottletjie wyn oop maak en proë nie, ons het dan so lekker kos gemaak, en ek dink n Shiraz-sie sal darem baie lekker daarby gaan?".
Well that said, she gave me the blessing of opening THAT bottle. Finally the cork "popped" and the sound of total bliss went through our humble Boland Château.
MY TASTING NOTES ON THE WINE - COLOUR: Dark ruby, rich in colour, good depth of colour concentration, watery brim = shows maturation. Can defiantly determine that the quality of grapes used was excellent. Suggest low yielding vineyards. Hand-selection done. Some sediment present in the glass = wine could have had minimum filtration (not sterile filtered), could even not have been cold stabilised. Just by looking at the colour of the wine you get the idea of a high priced wine of exceptional quality / NOSE: My immediate impression is a scene from "A Good Year' where Russell Crowe strolls in the vineyard of France. (Summer sun, white pebbles on the ground, a dog running up and down in the vineyard stained purple) I think; "Bordeaux, Merlot right bank", but it's not, it's a Shiraz / PALATE Fresh red ripe raspberries from the nose to palate, followed by a plummy (almost jammy but not jammy jammy) cooli, the wine is fresh, good acidity, juicy, defiantly french oak, 2nd fill (??), no American oak. Very old world style - if I had to say. As the wine develops overtime in the glass, it becomes bigger and bigger. To me the palate is a little bit rough around the edges (bit tannic), not as smooth, but yet smooth / velvety, that I would've thought. But what struck me is the freshness of the palate. Its like I'm eating fresh raspberries and ripe plums on a summers day, under a tree in the vineyard. Powerful, not your typical New World style Shiraz, no violets, no leatherisness, no American influence, very austere, subtle hints of pencil shavings / SCORE: 17.5/20.
RICHENEAU TASTING NOTES - Dark, rich plum colour. Characteristic spicy nose, with a youngberry fragrance. It is a pleasant rustic nose with a myriad of spices, broody fruit with jammy nuances . Mouth feel is immensely elegant yet powerful and full flavored. Finish is impressively long with beautifully ripened tannins.
VITI / VINICULTURE: The grapes were harvested by hand on 15 February 2006 at 24,6º balling and fermented in small open stainless steel tanks between 24ºC and 28ºC for 9 days. Yield of wine per hectare is about 28 hectolitres. Pumpovers and punch downs were done every four hours up to 10º balling to ensure optimum extraction of colour and tannins. The wine was pressed in a small 700kg bag press to 65% and thereafter pumped into settling tanks. After two weeks it was racked into second fill French Oak barrels where it underwent malo-lactic fermentation. The wine was racked every 3 - 4 months and left to mature in wood for a total of 14 months.
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