Touch Pinotage

This wine pairs well with grilled meats, barbecued dishes, and hard cheeses that can stand up to its bold flavors​.

The vines for this wine are grown in low-yielding, well-drained shale and schist soils in Tulbagh. The west-north-west facing aspect ensures optimal sun exposure for ripening. The yield for this vintage was approximately 6.4 tons per hectare​.

After a 48-hour cold maceration to extract color and fruit, the wine was fermented with juice pumped over the skins three times daily. The wine was aged for 20 months in French oak barrels—20% second fill, 40% third fill, and 40% fourth fill barrels​.

Rijk’s is situated 120km North-East of Cape Town and 80km East of the Atlantic ocean in a Mediterranean climate. Our valley is surrounded by the Obiqua, Winterhoek, and Witzenberg mountains which reach heights of up to 1 995m. Lover of good food and collector of good wines, Neville Dorrington had been working in Cape Town for more than 20 years. In 1996 Neville and his family decided to move to the countryside and grow and produce their own wine. We fell in love with the Tulbagh valley and came across 137 hectares of virgin soils that were never cultivated. The slopes faced north, south, east, and west and the analysis of the vertical shale soils revealed the potential for low-yielding, high-quality grapes. Today Rijk’s only focuses on producing Chenin Blanc and Pinotage. Rijk’s has been named in honour of the governor Rijk Tulbagh who governed the Cape from 1751-1771.