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Fusion V on the Global "A" List |
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FOOD & WINE the American food and
wine Richard Nalley wrote: "Hundreds of exciting wineries have opened up around the globe in recent years defying the worldwide economic slump. Italy, Spain, the United States and probably South Africa and Australia have each launched a long roster of impressive newcomers. And countries in both the Old and the New World, ranging from Germany to Argentina to New Zeeland, have debuted innovative new wineries that would be impossible for any oenophile to ignore. The terrific bottles highlighted here come from a selection of the planet's 20 most notable producers, all of which introduced their labels in 1999 or later". |
magazine with a distribution of over 6
million copies produced their global "A" list of best new wineries
around the world.
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De Toren
Fusion V 2002 ($37.00).
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Burgundy and Stellenbosch | |
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It is with pride that we can announce that we have joined forces with a major producer in Burgundy to jointly produce and market a new label. The wine will be a Shiraz and will be marketed under the DDS label. DDS stands for Den Dulk and Siddle. Mark Siddle and wife Eva own Domaine Bertagne in Burgundy. Domaine Bertagne is a Grand Cru and Premier Cru producer and their top wines regularly score in excess of 90 points on the Parker scale and sell in excess of US $100.00 per bottle. Bertagne's wine making philosophy and winery layout and methods are much the same as we employ at De Toren. A concerted effort is undertaken to cement the collaboration between the classic 'old' wine country and innovative Cape Wine making. Sourcing of grapes, vinification, style, quality and distribution comprise a combined effort by owners and winemakers from both properties. The final product will be distributed worldwide from France.
Mark Siddle Albie, Emil and Claire watches as the first batch of Shiraz is poured into the fermentor.
A limited amount of this maiden
vintage Driefontein Shiraz |
The First Wine: Fine grained French oak barrels from Domaine Bertagne's own air dried stocks of Bertranges and Fontainebleau oak as well as second fill barrels from Hospice de Beaune were specially imported. After final barrel selection the quality was agreed to be of worth, bottling has taken place using natural cork closures again imported from Domaine Bertagne's own reserves in Portugal. The first release of the splendid 2003 Cape Vintage will take place in Europe early in 2005, at the same time as the new 2003 vintage of Domaine Bertagne is presented to the international market and the media. The Farm: Because of this unique situation and "virgin" soil we have implemented detailed viticultural research, using the best South African expertise to develop the property. A barrel cellar will be built here and the wines will be made at De Toren. |
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Did you see us at |
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Did you leave your business card in our tray? If you did not, you did not stand a chance to win a magnum of Fusion V 2000 Directors Reserve.
Hilda Dreyer
General manager of Terroir, The valued item (One of Frank Jacob's best wines 5 of the year) was won by Brett Nagle of Rand Merchant Bank in Johannesburg The response at the show was so good that we decided to draw a second prize as well. A case of Diversity Gamma went to Natalie Powder media Specialist at Graffiti in Johannesburg. |
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Secrets of Our Success | |
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What happens when you mix black paint with white paint? You get grey paint. Even if it is only 10% black paint it turns all the paint grey. The same happens with grapes. Because there is unevenness in vineyards you get good grapes and better grapes out of the same block. Above you can see the interpretation of a block of Cabernet Sauvignon. The colours range from dark blue through red and yellow. Those sections all give grapes of different flavours. Now if you could separate the "good" grapes from the "better" grapes you can get an excellent wine. This is exactly what we do for Fusion V through satellite imaging. With an infrared camera mounted in an aircraft we will fly over |
our vineyards in January and photograph the vineyards. Through clever technology the growth pattern in a block is interpreted into different colours. Through GPS technology we mark off these sections with hazard tape. We will monitor, harvest and ferment these sections separately. From here we can taste the wines produced from these sections and decide which wines will be destined for Fusion V and which not. We will then also decide on the oak treatment for these wines separately. With this micromanagement we can now also analyse soils in the area where we would like to improve or retard the growth and treat those sections separately from the rest of the block. |
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International |
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THE NETHERLANDS
Proefschrift - one of the leading wine magazines in the Netherlands Selected the De Toren Fusion V 2002 out of 160 international wines as it's wine of the year. Above is the certificate to go with the accolade. Also in the Netherlands , Frank Jacobs, editor of Perswijn the largest wine magazine in the Netherlands selected the De Toren Fusion V Directors Reserve (2000) as one of the best wines he has tasted this year. |
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Latest technology in our new | |
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Our new vineyard in front of the cellar has just been planted to the latest technology available in South Africa. With experts involved in all aspect of vineyard planning from the University of Stellenbosch we set about planning and planting this vineyard. We needed some more Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Malbec for our blend. We dug 88 holes over a 5 hectare property to get a really good idea of the soil types. We found 13 soil types and qualities and the planting widths will vary as the soil type changes. This means in a row of 100 meters long we could plant the same cultivar over 4 different planting widths. So has the rootstock been adapted to these different soil types and the clones selected to respond best to the conditions. We planted 3 clones of Cabernet Sauvignon, 2 clones of Merlot and one clone of Malbec. |
In the picture below you will notice the row direction towards the mountains at Cape Point. This is the area where most of our summer winds come from. These winds now blow straight along the planted rows giving us an full air-conditioning effect in the vineyard. Cooler conditions give a longer ripening period and better flavours in the wine.
Furthermore the row widths have been narrowed down to 1,8 meters wide from the traditional 2,5 meters. This gives us higher plant density per hectare and will result in more concentrated grape juice. |
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Cooler conditions give a longer ripening period and better flavours in the wine. |
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UNITED KINGDOM DIVERSITY GAMMA gets the nod in The Wine List 2004 With over 8 million Daily Mail readers a week, Mathew Jukes has the most keenly followed wine column in the UK . The Wine List is the U K 's best selling wine guide. In this guide he features the top 250 wines of the year. Diversity Gamma is listed as one of these wines:" This is one of South Africa 's gems and if you compare it to red Bordeaux , you have to spend a tenner (minimum) more for the same impact, harmony and class. |
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South African Accolades | |
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Best wine at the show. De Toren Fusion V 2002 was voted the best wine at the show at Winex Cape Town. Winex is the annual wine show organised by Michael Fridjhon and was held in Cape Town during September. Here the public are encouraged to vote for their best wine on the show in both the red and white wine categories. |
This accolade follows hot on the heels of the same accolade that was bestowed on the 2001 Fusion V at the same show in Johannesburg late last year.
De Toren's stand at the Winex show at the Sandton Convention Centre - Johannesburg |
The De Toren Fusion V 2002 |
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