The Sadie Family Columella 2013

GRAPES: Syrah, Mourví_í‰dre, Grenache, Carignan & Cinsaut 

VINIFICATION: Hand sorting of individual berries in small cases. Fermentation took place in 3300 litre open concrete fermenters, for about three weeks, followed by a maceration of three weeks. No additions were made to the fermenting wine. Pressing took place in a traditional basket press and the wine was transferred to the barrel for malolactic fermentation.

AGING: The wine spent 12 months on their lees in tight- grain French oak barrels, just 10% of them new. The wine was then racked into big oval casks for an additional year of maturation on the fine lees. After a total of two years, the wine was bottled without fining or filtration.

NOTES: The 2013 vintage was in many respects, one that came and went easily, like a well-behaved child who gets less noticed than a more troublesome one. It is often these vintages that get missed. From the outset, it had a very tight texture and inner core. Even at the time of the first 12 month racking from barrel to foudre we knew that Columella 2013 was an obvious candidate for long-term aging. The aromatics show slightly darker fruit, with the ripeness just outside the red fruit spectrum – approaching the blue berry fruit dynamics. Amazingly, however, this is the lowest alcohol Columella bottled since the maiden 2000, but even though we have seemingly reduced ripeness on paper, in the bottle we did not sacrifice an iota of texture or volume. The real gain was in the acidity and overall freshness. This might just become one of the most unique bottlings to date. 

Alc: 13.78%

RS: 1.8g/l

PH: 3.50

Total sulphur: 31mg/l

Total acidity: 5.8g/l

Production: 9546 bottles