Wellington Old Vines Basson Cinsault

Cinsault as a wine and food pairing is often used with sea snails in garlic, better known as Escargot. It also works quite well in pairings with rich foods like stews, braised and roasted meat dishes.

This historic parcel of dry farmed bush vine Cinsault grows on an ancient riverbed in Wellington, comprised of deep sandy alluvial soils, which provides the incredible perfume and structure in this wine. It is the oldest registered red wine vineyard in South Africa, planted in 1900 on the first selection of rootstocks available in the country. The grapes were hand-harvested during the cool morning sunrise on the 18th of February 2022 yielded four tons per hectare which translated to twenty hectolitres per hectare. Now nearing a decade since we started rehabilitating these vines by applying better sustainable farming practices, the quality of this Old Vine vineyard has improved substantially with every harvest.

This wine was matured for twenty-one months in 500L French oak barrels.

To best preserve the natural tannins from the special heritage Cinsault site, we put 100% crushed whole-clusters in tank with minimal sulphur added. No further additions were made. Once the primary fermentation began spontaneously, the wine was pigeaged as often as deemed necessary. Cinsault can be a fast fermenter, so the temperature was kept cool to keep the primary fermentation at a pace to preserve the wine’s beautiful fruit profile. After three weeks of extended maceration, the wine was drained and pressed to barrel.

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.