De Grendel Elim Shiraz One of the Best in South Africa
De Grendel celebrates the Elim Shiraz with our 2nd prestigious award in 24 hours! The De Grendel Elim Shiraz is a winner in the Shiraz SA Challenge 2018 and one of the Top 12 Shiraz’s in South Africa for 2018.
To the incredible benefit of De Grendel Loyalty Club members, this wine is exclusively available to them. The De Grendel Elim Shiraz replaced the De Grendel Amandelboord Pinotage as the exclusive wine available to De Grendel Loyalty Club members in 2017.
“Elim is one of the unique areas that constantly produce Shiraz grapes in the rotundone style with pepper and fynbos characteristics,” says Charles Hopkins, De Grendel’s Cellar Master. Charles is originally from Bredasdorp close to the Elim area where he and fellow winemakers planted the first vineyards in the area back in 1994. “What makes this wine extra special is the fact that its bottled in magnum bottles – this results in a slower ageing process in the bottle which makes the wine so much more special.”
The De Grendel Elim Shiraz presents fynbos and blackcurrant tasting notes as well as an elusive, yet spicy rotundone style. A "punch down" method is used in the production to extract as much as possible flavour from the skins, and the wine is then matured for 12 months in 2nd and 3rd fill barrels. Only 1500 magnums (1.5l) have been produced, further enhancing this wine’s exclusivity.
A total of 192 wines (36 blends and 156 Shiraz – 27 less than in 2017) from all the country’s wine-making regions entered the Shiraz SA Challenge this year. The decrease in entries is comparable with other similar wine competitions. According to Edmund Terblanche, the pinching economy might be compelling cellars to only enter their very best.
Concerning the quality of entries, the judges agreed that very few faulty wines were presented for tasting. “We saw more lighter-styled wines as a result of earlier pickings,” says Terblanche. “And therefore, also found more definition and prominent varietal characteristics.”
Judge Jeanne-Mari de Villiers of Checkers’ Odd Bins shares that the entered wines once again portrayed the diversity of Shiraz. “The Shiraz grape is suitable for the creation of a wide variety of styles that need not only be terroir driven but can reflect the influence of the wine maker.”