Bakenkop Syrah

Pepper-crusted fillet steak with brandy cream sauce.

From a vineyard planted in 2003, on the lower south-facing slopes of Bakenkop hill, on Welbeloond Farm. The vineyard has ancient, stony, shale soils and sits between 50 and 80 m above sea-level and is 9 Km east of the Atlantic Ocean. The vineyard has been farmed organically since June 2015, but not yet certified. Harvest yields were 6.2 tons/Ha.

After 14 days the wine was pressed and then matured in 225 litre, seasoned, French oak barrels for 9 months before bottling.

Picked by hand into crates, early in the morning. 35% of the grapes were left as whole-bunch with the remainder destemmed and transferred to a two-ton, open fermentation vessel. The juice began spontaneous fermentation from ambient yeasts after two days of soaking. During fermentation the wine was punched down three times daily.

Mellish Family Vineyards is a boutique wine producer, making terroir driven wines from vineyards on the family farm, Welbeloond. Welbeloond is situated twenty kilometres north of Cape Town, in the hills of Durbanville – nine kilometres east of Table Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The farm has historical significance as it was originally used as an outpost by Jan Van Riebeeck in the late 1600s. The Cape Dutch manor house and outbuildings, that are still on the farm today, were originally established in 1785. The family lived on and leased the land from 1918 and eventually purchased the farm in 1934. Historically farming grain, livestock and dairy – thirty five hectares of vineyard were planted between 2000 and 2004. Mellish Family Vineyards aims to bottle wines that are refreshingly balanced – with a complexity and depth of flavour that expresses the ancient, stony, shale soils and the Mediterranean-like, coastal climate of our vineyards.