South by South West
South by South West "Super Margs" Sangiovese Cabernet
South by South West "Super Margs" Sangiovese Cabernet
2019 ‘Super Margs’ draws influence from the highly sought after and respected Super Tuscan wines of Italy, which are made from non-indigenous varieties. After patiently waiting vintage after vintage for Sangiovese fruit, and having finally come into some this vintage, we decided to make a diversion from the regionally popular Cabernet Merlot blend and instead create a French Italian influenced, modern style wine – Sangiovese Cabernet.
The ripe fruit of the Cabernet Sauvignon provides richness and flavour, while the Sangiovese provides youthfulness, aromatics and overall acid to the blend. This wine is a little heavier than a medium bodied wine and shows off some great fruit and well-integrated tannins.
The Cabernet grapes were sorted and crushed into open fermenters for primary ferment, and left on skins for 16 days. The must was initially gently hand plunged one to two times a day during fermentation and allowed to reach higher temperatures, and then less frequently as alcohol volume increased. The Sangiovese grapes were destemmed and crushed into small open fermenters where they were fermented on skins, including 20% whole bunch.
The Sangiovese was then pressed into a new Hungarian Hogshead barrel and the Cabernet pressed into an older French oak barriques. The wine then matured on oak for a period of six months before being bottled. The decision to use Hungarian oak was influenced from our time in Italy, where this was the preferred oak when working with Sangiovese, where the tighter grain tends to bring out a spicier element of the flavour profile of the oak. Prior to bottling the final blend was decided, with the final split comprising 60% Sangiovese and 40% Cabernet Sauvignon.
We aim for minimal intervention to let the fruit express itself, yet there are certain things we do need to maintain the quality and integrity of this wine. We’ve added minimal sulphites to stabilise the wine and ensure its shelf life. This wine has not been fined. This wine has been coarsely filtered. We use this method as it is extremely gentle in nature and does not strip flavour nor character from the wine, creating a final, high quality polish.