Bernard Series Bush Vine Pinotage

This Pinotage pairs excellently with a variety of dishes, including duck, lamb, beef, barbecue cuisine, and mature, hard, and smoked cheeses.

Grapes for this wine are sourced from a prized 43-year-old bush vine block in Stellenbosch, where the vines grow in weathered granite soils with small yields. Very precise shoot thinning and green harvesting are performed to maintain the best quality and balance.

The wine is matured for 12 months in a combination of new and second-fill French oak barrels, which imparts subtle oak nuances and enhances the wine's structure and complexity.

The best bunches are individually selected in the vineyard, followed by a second berry selection and sorting at the cellar. Fermentation occurs in open French oak barrels with daily punch-downs. After malolactic fermentation in barrels, 50% of the wine is matured in new French oak and 50% in second-fill barrels for a period of 12 months.

Bellingham is a historic Franschhoek wine name dating back to 1693, with a legacy of Cape firsts including rosé and single-varietal Shiraz. Today, the range draws from selected Western Cape vineyards to produce contemporary South African wines with structure, regional character and broad everyday appeal.