Vinum Pinot Noir

Ideal with duck and other game birds, casseroles or, of course, stews like beef bourguignon.

These grapes come from two vineyards, one in Botrivier and the other in Stellenbosch. The Stellenbosch vineyards are 12 years old, east facing with deep and rich Clovelly soils. This vineyard is picked earlier to retain the acidity and balance. The Botrivier vineyards are 15 years old, north facing and consisting of Burgundian clone 115 planted in koffieklip soils. Good rainfall in the winter of 2020 ensured great growing vigour, but strong winds during October and November meant a smaller harvest than in 2020.

The wine was then matured in a combination of 228L and 300L barrels of Burgundian origin. As with all our wines we used minimal SO2 and this was not fined.

The berries were co-fermented using natural ferments. We made use of our hoist system which enabled us to lift the berries into the tanks and use gravity to drop them in and carry out 100% whole berry fermentation. We employed gentle extraction and the berries were gently basket pressed for pure and fine tannins.

Founded in 1998 by Alex Dale, Radford Dale set about the Cape in search of exciting vineyard parcels for their chosen specialist varietals. Today, they have two producing wineries. The first is located in Stellenbosch, predominantly focused on sourcing maritime influenced parcels around the Helderberg and Polkadraai. Here, they produce the cult, single vineyard wines of Renaissance Chenin Blanc and Frankenstein Pinotage, and the Radford Dale Vinum range; a set of six wines that consistently overdeliver on style to price. The 2022 vintage marked the maiden release from their own vineyards purchased in Elgin under Radford Dale Organic, with the release of four single varietal Estate wines, the only organic certified vineyards in the region. More recently, they have co-founded South Africa’s first Organic Wine Association. They continue to reintroduce Gamay Noir to the Cape, establishing the first new plantings for some 20 years. It’s a varietal geared up to thrive in warm conditions, and on granite soils. Stylistically, Gamay also embodies Radford Dale’s championing of elegant, refreshing red wines.