Merlot

Red meat, pasta and pizza.

All grapes used in producing our wines are grown on Keermont Vineyards. Most of the vineyard parcels grow on deep red clay rich soil derived from sandstone and granite and are surrounded by indigenous vegetation. They lie between 250 and 400 metres above sea level at the top of the valley between the Stellenbosch and Helderberg mountain ranges and have a variety of aspects from North East to West facing. 2017 was a very good growing season on Keermont. Despite a drier than usual winter, we had strong growth in the vineyards during the spring time. This led to the formation of a good healthy crop which ripened evenly during the warm, dry summer. Harvest started fairly early, but was put on hold after a heavy rainfall. This perked the vines up and allowed for extended ripening which definitely raised the quality. We recorded one of our largest and healthiest crops yet.

This wine spent 20 months maturing in seasoned French oak barrels before being bottled by hand without filtration.

Small batched of grapes are specifically selected according to ripeness, harvested by hand and vinified separately. This process is carried out gently with minimal intervention in open-top fermenters using traditional methods only.

Agriculture in the Upper Blaauwklippen Valley can be traced back to 1694. In 2003 the Wraith family moved to the Western Cape from Gauteng and bought two adjacent farms. These two farms are now farmed as one Estate known as Keermont Vineyards. 2005 saw the start of a major vineyard planting programme on lands that had been fallow for a number of years. We planted 21Ha over seven years to add to an existing 8Ha of older vineyards. Our official maiden vintage was 2007 and in 2010 a spring water bottling plant on Fleurfontein was converted into a fully functional winery complete with offices tasting room processing facilities and barrel rooms.