About this WINE
Botanica
Ginny Povall is the energetic, self-taught American behind Mary Delanywines. Ginny set up in the Cape in 2008, after many years living as a New Yorker, taken with wine making. Gaining some part time education from UC Davis and informal learning from a huge library of viticulture text books, old vine sites were found and fruit was contracted. All the while she also set about creating a guest house and plant nursery both still part of the broader business.
In 2009 and 2010 her own vines of mostly Bordeaux varieties were planted in the Devon Valley, Stellenbosch and will come to the market in the next couple of vintages. Formerly called ‘Botanica’, the bottles are labelled with the printed collages of 18th century British artist Mary Delany. Striking branding for what are exceptional wines.
Pinot Noir
Pinot Noir is probably the most frustrating, and at times infuriating, wine grape in the world. However when it is successful, it can produce some of the most sublime wines known to man. This thin-skinned grape which grows in small, tight bunches performs well on well-drained, deepish limestone based subsoils as are found on Burgundy's Côte d'Or.
Pinot Noir is more susceptible than other varieties to over cropping - concentration and varietal character disappear rapidly if yields are excessive and yields as little as 25hl/ha are the norm for some climats of the Côte d`Or.
Because of the thinness of the skins, Pinot Noir wines are lighter in colour, body and tannins. However the best wines have grip, complexity and an intensity of fruit seldom found in wine from other grapes. Young Pinot Noir can smell almost sweet, redolent with freshly crushed raspberries, cherries and redcurrants. When mature, the best wines develop a sensuous, silky mouth feel with the fruit flavours deepening and gamey "sous-bois" nuances emerging.
The best examples are still found in Burgundy, although Pinot Noir`s key role in Champagne should not be forgotten. It is grown throughout the world with notable success in the Carneros and Russian River Valley districts of California, and the Martinborough and Central Otago regions of New Zealand.
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Description
From two sites in Elgin, between Cape Town and Walker Bay, this wine represents some of the best value Pinot Noir, anywhere. It is fermented in 500 kg bins before being transferred to old oak barrels for nine months of maturation. Unequivocally Pinot Noir, with red fruits and spice chased by earth and smoke. Fresh and immediate but with complexity enough to keep it interesting until 2017.
Richard Veal, Private Wine Events
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