Carménère

The fullness and dense expression on the nose and palate of the Carménère make this wine an ideal partner to a rich Molten Chocolate Lava cake served with a selection of fresh berries in season.

The Carménère 2022 fruits are grown against the Helderberg Mountain slopes of Stellenbosch. The final blend consists of Carménère at 89 % and Cabernet Sauvignon at 11%. The Carménère fruit is grown in a combination of Sandstone and coffee stone (Koffie Klip) soils while the Cabernet Sauvignon fruit is grown on decomposed granite soils.

The wine was matured in a combination of 25% new French oak, 50% older oak for 15 months, and 25% in concrete Eggs before bottling.

Our fruit is hand-picked and hand-sorted to ensure the purest fruit expression of the varietal. Spontaneously and selected yeast was employed to add to the palate feel of the final wine. The fermented juice was drawn off twice a day and then slowly percolated over the skins to minimize the extraction of greener herby aromas and flavours. This action also adds oxygen to stabilize colour and help soften the tannin structure.

Carmen Stevens Wines was established in 2011 with our maiden vintage in 2014. Carmen Stevens has been in the South African Wine Industry since qualifying in 1995. Carmen graduated as the first black South African to study the art of winemaking in South Africa. In January 2019, Carmen registered the first 100% black-owned winery in South Africa in the picturesque Stellenbosch. We celebrate each growing season by highlighting the attributes that Mother Nature gives us with each vintage. Our work is to accentuate the positive attributes of the specific year and display these characteristics in full to the wine enthusiast. Each bottle of Carmen Stevens Wines is truly handmade, and we are committed to only using plant-derived additives that ensure our wines can be enjoyed by all. We source our fruit from a range of grape-growing regions with exceptional vineyards, enabling us to celebrate the array of soil types of South Africa, each adding its unique touch to our wines. Individual small batches of wines are handmade and blended later to heighten what we strive to showcase in each vintage.