Lovely Creatures Cabernet Sauvignon Western Cape

The second vintage of the Lovely Creatures Cabernet Sauvignon is a monumental effort given the nominal price tag. There is a lot of wine in this bottle. Stephanie rang a friend to source fruit located on the awe-inspiring slopes of the Simonsberg Mountain in Stellenbosch. The vineyard was planted nearly 20-years-ago and due to the steep mountain slope is trained on trellising. Some of the fruit also comes from Banhoek Valley and the lower slopes of the Helderberg in Stellenbosch. The soils are primarily a clay-driven sandstone mix that provides the power and intensity in the background of the wine.

The grapes were hand-harvested and fully destemmed before being gently crushed. The wine fermented in small 1-2 ton lots with inoculation used where necessary. After ten days on the skins the grapes were pressed to tank to settle overnight then racked to older French barriques (with 10% new) for aging. In the spring the wine was lightly sulfured and after a total of 14 months aging it was racked to blend and bottled without a vegan fining, bulk filtration, and just another small sulfur addition