Torero

Torero Suit of Lights Carignan 2024

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Price: R 330.00
The traje de luces the "suit of lights" is the sequinned, gold-threaded costume a Spanish bullfighter wears into the ring, and it lends its name to Fernando Rueda's Carignan, made with Angus Paul from an established block in Wellington. Carignan has a reputation for being rustic and rough, high in both acid and tannin, and single-varietal bottlings remain rare in South Africa. The point of this one is to show what the grape can actually do. Hand-picked and cooled overnight, then whole bunches into open-top bins, foot-trodden to start the ferment, and left on skins for around three weeks with a single gentle pump-over a day to keep the cap healthy rather than to extract anything more. Ten months in older barrels follows. A very individual expression: flinty reduction, sea breeze and dried kelp over salty cassis and sour black plum, with graphite and crushed-granite minerality. Cool and penetrating on the palate, punchy, with glassy acids and tart spiced cranberry running long and linear. Drinks well now after a short decant, and will keep.