BERNHEIM Pinotage Rosé 2007

Happiness is a life-long dream come true. To partners Pieter Taljaard, Hermann Helmbold and winemaker Jacques Kruger, this has meant the acquisition of the beautiful Bernheim wine farm. It is situated on the slopes of Paarlberg near the Berg River and looks out onto the Du Toits kloof mountain range. The soils and climate are ideally suited for the cultivation of noble grape varieties with sufficient water from the Berg River to relieve vineyard stress during the ripening season.

The 2007 season was Jacques’ first vintage in which he made a Rosé using only Pinotage grapes.
Pinotage is a true South African  variety cloned from Pinot Noir and Hermitage vines in 1925 by professor A I Perold.

Wine Making Details
The grapes were allowed to reach optimum ripeness and careful selection in the vineyard resulted with only the best grapes being hand harvested. After de-stalking and crushing the grapes were pumped into a red wine fermentation tank and cold macerated before yeast was inoculated and fermentation commenced. During this period 136 liters of juice per ton of grapes was drawn from the tank and cold fermented in a white wine style. Fermentation was stopped before the wine was dry and resulted in a fruity Rosé with rich flavours of sweet berry and plum with a crisp dry ending.

Analysis at Bottling
Alcohol %	12.45  vol %
Residual Sugar	11.5 g / l
Total Acidity	6.3 g / l
Ph	3.16

                                             
Serve well chilled: on its own or with lightly spiced dishes such as bobotie.