Main Road & Dignity

Pair it with lamb, venison or roast beef. The combination of fresh acidity and fine tannins makes it particularly good with richer red meat without letting the wine feel overly heavy.

Focus on soil and vine health. Dry-farmed. Under-vine mulching, hand weeding, composts and biochar. Alternating mixed cover crops, no-till planting, summer mechanical mowing of weeds/grasses. Lateral shoot removal and leaf thinning around the bunch zone to optimise grape flavour and airflow. Ducks and wasps are used for natural pest control.

Aged 23 months in 225L barrels, 30% new, followed by three months in stainless steel tank, then bottle aged a further 21 months. Total time aged before release; four years.

Hand harvested, destemmed, 30% whole berry. Fermented in open-top oak fermenters, spontaneous fermentations with a combination of gentle pump-overs and short punchdowns. No additives, no cooling. Extended maceration. Lightly basket-pressed.

Restless River is in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, situated in the Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley appellation, with vineyards at an altitude reaching 1200ft and 5km from the cold South Atlantic ocean. The appellation is unique with ancient, granite-based, rocky, deep clay soils; extremely rare to the greater Walker Bay area. Daytime temperatures during summer are some of the lowest in the South African winelands. This cool maritime climate and decomposed granite soils  produces elegant wines, balanced with texture, length and complexity.