Longitude – Shiraz Cabernet Malbec – 2023

In order to set one’s chronometer at port, ship captains kept a beady eye on a harbour’s time ball. The building depicted on the front of the label is the Time Ball Tower which still stands in the Cape Town Harbour. A time ball on top of the tower drops at a predetermined time (in Cape Town it was 1 o’clock in the afternoon) to enable sailors to set or check their marine chronometers from the ships. This enabled them to keep their timepieces super accurate and so calculate longitude while at sea. Longitude is Flagstone’s way-finder wine, a place where people enter the quirky world of Flagstone.

The secret to crafting our Longitude is painstaking blending, using the three varieties we think do consistently brilliantly in our environment – Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Malbec. We want to accentuate a unique South African combination of accessibility and complex diversity. Longitude must taste juicy and fruity. It must feel soft, but have intriguing, lingering tannins and flavour.

Most importantly it must always offer unbeatable value for money. The Cabernet Sauvignon gives structure and presence, the Shiraz adds a spicy, velvety mouth-feel and Malbec is there for an extra dollop of juicy, ripe red fruit flavour.

38% Shiraz, 35% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Malbec, 2% Durif
Alc: 14.0%   RS: 4.6g/L   pH: 3.56   TA: 5.5g/L