Merlot 2015

FAMILY VINEYUARDS MERLOT
REGION: Rio Grande do Sul - Brazil ( Border Brazil Argentina)
TASTING NOTES
Color
Presents and intensity of purple hues and ruby red, with touches of amber.
Aroma
Intense with an already apparent bouquet. Presents a good evolution, giving a lot of complexity to its bouquet. Bouquet Descriptor: leather, mushroom, cassis fruit, raspberry, tobacco, coconut, roasted coffee, wicke.
Taste
A well incorporated bodied wine with good volume in the mouth. The sweet tannins stand out and give a velvety sensation. Very good persisting aftertaste.
TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS
HARVEST: The grapes were harvest manually during the first 15 days of March in 20 kg boxes. The average production of these vineyards was 12,000 kg/ha.
STRIPPING: The grapes were stripped by a special machine and soon after slightly pressed, just enough to release the juice without crushing the skins.
INCREASE OF SOLID/LIQUID RATIO: Before fermentation began, approximately 25% of the colorless liquid (without the skins) was removed from the tank so as increase the solid matter (skins) / liquid (juice) ratio, in order to achieve a higher concentration of color and tannin.
ALCOHOLIC FERMENTATION/MACERATION: Alcoholic fermentation was carried out in stainless steel tanks at 28 to 30ºC for about 15 days. Simultaneously, the first maceration took place with daily pumping over in order to dissolve the color and tannins.
POST-FERMENTATION MACERATION: After the alcoholic fermentation was finished, the tanks were closed and the wine was maintained in contact with the skins to enable further dissolution of polyphenols for another 15-20 days.
PRESSING: The grape husks were pressed in a pneumatic press and the resulting wine was mixed with the previous wine, by this obtaining a more structured, single wine standard.
MALOLATIC FERMENTATION: The Malolactic fermentation is done spontaneously and completely, soon after the pressing.
AGING: Approximately 50% of the wine was aged in 300-liter American