Pinot Gris

Pork, Spicy food, Mushrooms, Cured Meat

Pinot Gris isn't exactly an abundant grape planted in Stellenbosch, but it is something we have a lot of fun working with. Although a lot of the wine drinking world think and assume it is a 'white grape', it is in fact a lovely coppery/dark rose skinned grape. With this being the case, we just can't waste that colour and delicious flavour trapped in the skins, so we ferment this wine like a red. This year we decided to make 2 picks at harvest time. The earlier pick to help maintain acidity in a low acid year and the second pick, some 7 days later, to add more texture and depth.

The wine was then placed back in concrete vessels for 6 months of aging.

The grapes were destemmed into concrete tanks for fermentation and given a light pump over once a day for gentle extraction of the lovely rose-coloured hue and chalky tannin. Both picks were fermented separately on skins for 7 days and then pressed off and blended together.

Craven Wines is a Stellenbosch producer founded by Mick and Jeanine Craven in 2012, focused on exploring distinctive single-vineyard sites across the region. With attentive, low-intervention winemaking, the range highlights individual varieties and vineyards through pure, site-driven South African wines.