The Missing Link Shiraz

A great accompaniment to slow braised pork chops or roasted rack of lamb with parmesan mash and crisp garden veggies.

Harvested from a 1999 block of Shiraz planted to deep-red Cape Hutton soil in the Bottelary. These red soils hail its colour from high concentrations of iron oxide and allows good drainage for vine roots to frolic and produce concentrated mineral fruit. The meticulous attention to soil health, hand harvesting of grapes and careful attention to detail in the winery embodies the “Missing Link” between the Old and New World of wines.

Grapes are picked between 24-25 balling into older open top foudre, gently treaded and whole bunch fermented until dry. Soft basket pressing with 9% fresh stalks allows gentle extraction of dense dark flavours before 12 months barrel maturation in older 500l French oak barrels. Minimal intervention and wild yeast fermentation captures the true terroir these grapes are harvested from— ancient soils of the New World adding flare to this Old World grape.

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.