The Leeu Passant

Terrific with steaks or chops—like lamb chops with frizzled herbs.

This is our flagship cuveé in the Leeu Passant range and an incredible heritage blend from some of South Africa’s oldest registered vineyards. Both the Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc hail from vines grown on the mid-slopes of the iron and sandstone soils of the Helderberg Mountain in Stellenbosch, whilst the Cinsault is from South Africa’s oldest registered red wine vineyard planted in 1900. This single vineyard in Wellington is made up of dry-farmed bush vines and grows on deep sandy alluvial soils. The various grape varieties were hand-harvested between 3 February and 23 March 2021 with a yield of 2 to 6 tons per hectare, which translated to the hectolitres per hectare ranging from twelve to thirty-eight.

This wine was aged for eleven months in 500L French oak barrels, of which a third was new and was then blended into seasoned 2000L Foudres for a further 11 months.

The Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc were destemmed into tanks while the Cinsault was left with 100% of its stems intact and gently crushed. Relative to each wine’s fermentation cycle, the caps were maintained throughout indigenous yeast fermentation with a combination of gentle punch downs and pump overs. After an extended maceration period the wines were drained and pressed to barrel. The wines were racked during the winter, meticulously blended and then transferred to large wooden Foudres.

The Leeu Passant winery, based in Franschhoek, was established in 2013 with the purpose of harnessing the most exciting vineyards of the Cape in order to create multi-regional wines from vineyards aimed at expressing the Cape as a whole (not only from Franschhoek). The Name “Leeu Passant” is derived from Heraldry, referring to a ‘passing Lion’ and this is the symbol on the top of the capsule. Chris and Andrea Mullineux search far and wide for the best parcels of grapes for these wines, and make them at the Leeu Passant base, on Leeu Estates.