The Apprentice White Cinsaut

This white Cinsault will accompany an array of vegetarian dishes but also Norwegian salmon drenched in a brown butter sauce or lovely crispy oven grilled petit poissons in a lemon butter reduction.

Inspired by the harvest apprentices of 2015 guided under the cheerful smile of young gun Herman du Preez and old gun Tertius Boshoff, this wine is made from grapes harvested from a dryland vineyard planted in 1964 in the Bottelary hills.

The juice is fermented in small 225 litre French oak barrels with wild yeast and kept on the lees in the barrel for 9 months. It is bottled unfined and only with a soft filtration.

Bunch selection of white mutations and some lighter pink bunches are hand picked and pressed whole in a traditional basket press. A close eye is kept on the juice and grapes are gently pressed yielding only the purest of juice before discolouration kicks in.

Think of it this way: many many thousands of moons, ago – the best wines of the past were made by normal craftsmen going out into the forest and picking wild berries - grapes and vinifying some of the most precious art the world has ever seen or drunk. Are we not overthinking or overcomplicating wine so very often? Inspired by those winemakers of the distant past and looking at the future of the South African wine industry and her renegade young guns receiving great international recognition, we decided to put our art into small bespoke batches of ArtiSons wines, each uniquely sculpted true to nature and true to vine.