Vantage Pinotage

Enjoy with venison or dishes with a bit of spice.

2018 was a warm and relatively dry vintage. In the midst of the worst drought the Cape had experienced in decades the vineyards had to be managed very carefully so as not to overstress them. This meant a slightly larger than usual green harvest at veraison which led to a lower than normal yield, around 4 tons per hectare. The vineyard is 2 hectares of bush vines on a granitic ridge high up on the estate. It faces completely south and is therefore exposed to the sea breezes from the South and sheltered from the heat of the afternoon sun. This allows for extended hang time of the fruit without it becoming overripe. The vines are 19 years old and yields around 5 tons per hectare.

Maturation takes place in 225 litre French oak barriques for 18 months. 30% new oak is used with the remainder made up of second and third fill barriques. The wine is then racked and bottled. Unfined and unfiltered.

The grapes are hand harvested and then sorted in the cellar. The wine is fermented uninnoculated in 7000 litre French oak tanks. 30% of the stems are added back to the tanks. The wine spent 17 days on the skins before being drained.

“We would like people who drink our wines to experience the estate our soils our slopes our vines and our terroir. Wine should be experienced and not merely drunk and we endeavour to make every bottle of our wine a memorable experience. We believe wine is made in the vineyards and our goal is to allow the vineyards to express themselves by interfering as little as possible. As a result we have adopted a minimalist approach in both the vineyards and the cellar. The idea being to minimalise the human influence on the final product. In the vineyards we do everything by hand from pruning to harvesting. We are also proud members of the Biodiversity and Wine Initiative and of the Integrated Production of Wine Scheme. We have set aside 30% of the estate and dedicated it to the Western Capes indigenous flora and fauna. The goal in the cellar is to facilitate the production of wine from grapes and not merely manufacture wine. This is again done by following the minimalist approach of nothing added apart from a small amount of SO2 prior to bottling. All grapes are hand sorted in the cellar to remove m.o.g. (material other than grapes) and unripe grapes before they go to tank. Wild or naturally occurring yeasts are allowed to ferment the grapes before the wine is drained off the skins and allowed to mature in French oak barrels before being racked and bottled.