Merlot

Red meat, pasta and pizza.

The 2019 vintage was quite a challenging one at Keermont. The yields were very small, but the wines have turned out beautifully. Coming off the back of four very dry years in the Cape, the vines were taking a bit of strain. Winter rainfall was just slightly below average. Winter temperatures were moderate and perhaps not cold enough for the vines to break dormancy properly as we experienced quite uneven budding in Spring. Spring started off cool and wet so the disease pressure was quite high. From that point onwards, the vintage conditions were good with some Summer rains and warn temperatures without any major heat spikes. Harvest started on 30 January, but was interrupted by 40mm of rain the following week. This pepped the vines up for the final ripening of the grapes. Grapes were harvested in a very healthy condition although sugar levels were generally low and acidity was difficult to gauge.

This wine spent 20 months maturing in seasoned French oak barrels before being bottled by hand without fining and only light filtration on 9 November 2020.

Small batches 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.