2014 was a great vintage at Keermont Vineyards. The season’s winter was generally mild, but became cold and wet towards spring time. We experienced record rainfall and even snow on the mountains during August. This allowed for good vine growth during the spring, but also increased the mildew pressure and resulted in an unusually large insect population. Fortunately neither of these had a major impact on our crop. Our soils stayed moist through the growing season thanks to moderate temperatures and we hardly had to irrigate at all before harvest. A series of heat waves in early February jolted us into harvest action. The vines, which had been very nurtured by all the moisture, suddenly started to show some signs of stress and we needed to pick quite a few of the blocks over a short period. The favourable growing conditions contributed to a healthy crop of 152 tons for Keermont Vineyards. We processed 88 tons in our winery and sold 64.

Small batches of grapes are specifically selected according to ripeness, harvested by hand and vinified separately. This process is carried out gently and naturally in open top fermenters using traditional methods only. This wine spent 24 months maturing in seasoned French oak barriques before being bottled by hand without filtration on 1 February 2016. 14229 bottles and 100 magnums were produced. The Keermont Estate Reserve 2014 was bottle aged in our cellar for 36 months before release to ensure integration and improved drinkability on release.

Pair with big meat dishes such as osso buco or venison loin, hard cheeses or lamb cuts