Loading... Please wait...
)
Product Notes
PERSONAL NOTE:
Baby Bandito is a project we started in 2015. We wanted to work with vineyards that deliver wines that can be drunk young yet still “over deliver” in quality one would expect from our most affordable wine. There was a heavy influence from street artists (the good ones, not just your drunk student defacing someone’s wall, unless it was good) in the labels and the idea of a “series” using different and bright colours. The names of the wines come from expressions that we use as if giving encouragement to a child. Chin Up is the most recent addition. The photograph was taken by my brother Mark (with permission) whilst on holiday in Vietnam.
NAME OF ESTATE/DOMAINE: TESTALONGA
NAME OF VIGNERON: Craig Hawkins
VINTAGE: 2021
CELLAR LOCATION Bandits Kloof, Eendekuil, Piketberg, Swartland
CLIMATE: Mediterranean
TERROIR: Decomposed Granite, East facing, 220m above sea level
VITICULTURE: Planted in 1981, bush vine (un-trellised and dryland), farmed organically. This is a 3ha block on the farm of Rick Mcgrindle. It yields very large delicate grapes with thin skins of a pale complexion. The vineyard struggled the most of all our vineyards during the water stressed vintages of 2016-2018 and has taken some time to recover. 2021 was a good step in the right direction for this vineyard with better yield compared to the previous 3 vintages.
GRAPE: 100% Cinsaut
YIELDS: 25hl/ha
VINIFICATION:
Hand harvested and 100% Destemmed into open 2000L fermenters. Fermented on the skins for 9 days before being pressed off into a 3300L old oak Foudre and stainless steel tanks. No yeast (or other) inoculation or additives apart from a small amount of SO2 shortly before bottling. Ambient fermentation (the juice/ wine is not cooled). 100% malolactic fermentation. A light clarifying filtration using coarse cellulose sheets was carried out, but no fining.
TECHNICAL:
Alc 11.32%
TA 4.5g/l
pH 3.52
RS 1.4g/l
VA 0.51g/l
fSO2 12ppm
tSO2 40ppm
