The Bowline

The wine’s citrus lift and subtle ginger spice make it a natural partner to fresh coastal cuisine. For a dinner party option, enjoy with yellowtail ceviche with lime and coriander, sushi or sashimi, or Vietnamese rice paper rolls with prawns and a dipping sauce. The wine will complement the flavours of pea and mint risotto, and will also be a seamless partner to fresh goat’s milk cheese, whether grilled on a crostini or in a salad or cheese board.

Hand-harvested in the early morning at 22.5–23.5 °B and vinified separately, the winemaking process is done in reductive conditions. Grapes are crushed at 8 °C with two to four hours of skin contact before a light pressing. Juice settling is followed by the Sauvignon Blanc being racked to stainless steel tanks and the Semillon to 9% cement egg, 13% new oak and 13% 2nd fill barrels; and the rest to older 400l French oak barrels. After fermentation, both cultivars are matured on their fine lees for nine months and then blended: 62% Sauvignon and 38% Semillon.

Winemaker David Nieuwoudt created the Ghost Corner brand in 2007, initially starting off with a Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc and adding three new wines in 2012: The Bowline, a Sauvignon blanc and Semillon blend; Ghost Corner Pinot Noir; and Wild Ferment Sauvignon Blanc, a Sauvignon blanc naturally fermented in older barrels. Every year David selects a small quantity of grapes from vineyards in the Elim ward near Cape Agulhas on the southernmost tip of Africa. Ghost Corner takes its name from this treacherous coastline where more than 130 ships have been shipwrecked through the ages. The deep lime-rich soil with plentiful slate and gravel deposits in Elim’s maritime climate gives rise to exceptional white wines.