ArtiSons Blueberry Hill Shiraz 2020

GENERAL NOTES

After reaching tremendous international and local success with Stellenrust, owners Tertius Boshoff and Kobie van der Westhuizen decided to take things back to their roots to create wines without boundaries. The old Bottelary cellar was reinstated and the birthplace of the first artisan wines created by a passion for old vineyards and special sites. The ArtiSons winery allows us to free our spirits and make wines as natural as possible and as true to nature as possible.

IN THE VINEYARDS

Harvested from a 34-year-old block of Shiraz planted to clay soils in the Bottelary. A small arid patch inside this vineyard has been replanted yearly for stokkies dying but without success – the last lone survivors in the murderous clay soil have now been honoured by a separate harvest delivering low yields with intense blueberry perfume – so we sing to them: I found my thrill!!! On Blueberry Hill!!! ……Louis Armstrong – o yeah!!!

VINIFICATION

Grapes are picked between 24-25 balling. 58% of it is whole bunch fermented and the rest is crushed into open tank for 6 days skin contact with manual punch downs. Soft basket pressing with 17% fresh stalks allows gentle extraction of dense dark flavours before 12 months of barrel maturation in older 500l French oak barrels. Minimal intervention allows for a true expression of the grape.