Ladybird Red -Organic- Laibach Organic Wines

THE LADYBIRD Red 2016

TECHNICAL DETAILS

VARIETAL	24 % Cab. Sauv., 38 % Merlot, 12 % Petit Verdot, 19 % Cab. Franc, 7 % Malbec
ALCOHOL	14.0 % vol.
TOTAL ACIDITY	5.7 g/l
pH	3.56
RESIDUAL SUGAR	1.9 g/l

TASTING NOTES

A new release of our most popular and best known Organic red wine. The Ladybird red was first produced in 2003 and is the oldest Organic certified wine from the famous Stellenbosch appellation. The wine is always a blend of 5 Bordeaux varieties and all from only the Laibach “terroir”. All our vineyards are farmed organically since 2000. Our winemaking is as natural as possible with no fixed recipe and no chemicals at all. No fining or any strange modern day chemicals are used. The vineyards are anchored in deep clay soils and in most of the blocks no irrigation is used. This adds to the quality of the wine because deep soils equal deep roots and a slower ripening. The plants are also more protracted against heat and drought and are therefore more consistent.
All grapes are handpicked in 500kg bins and moved immediately to the cellar. We prefer morning picking before the heat of the days gets to warm. We do manual sorting for every bunch that comes into the cellar after destemming but before crushing. A slow process but critical in quality because we remove all the green stems that the top of the range equipment could not get out. We ferment natural and in open top fermentation vessels of around 4.5 tons. Extraction is done by hand punching and pump overs. No fixed recipe for this and it changes with every harvest.
After a short warm fermentation the grapes are pressed and press juice are kept separate. All the wine will do a malolactic fermentation in stainless and after that it will be racked and aged for at least 12 months in tight grain French oak 225 liter barrels. The final wine is blended just before bottling and we bottle all our wine sterile and with very little Sulphur.

Deep dark red colour. On the nose aromas of wild berry, cigar box and a hint of dark chocolate. Quite aromatic for such a young wine but showing what purity of organic fruit is all about. A medium bodied palate with juicy fruit and fine integrated tannins. A wine with lots of complexity and structure to age gracefully for the next 5 – 10 years.