Bowwood Pinotage

Enjoy with barbequed pork belly over a hot bed of coals or hearty, slow cooked lamb.

Bowwood Pinotage is made from a small, single vineyard, planted in clay-rich gravel soils in 1998. The vineyard is shy bearing with poor vigour, which ensures tiny berries with hugely concentrated flavour. A North-South row orientation exposes the grapes to plenty of gentle morning and late afternoon sunshine, perfect for intense colour and aromatic development.

The wine is further matured on the yeast and malolactic lees for 18 months. At this point, the finest 8 barrels are selected, blended and returned to barrel for an additional 6 months. Finally, the wine is kept for 4 months in a stainless-steel tank to promote stability and clarification, before it is bottled and laid to rest for a full year before it is released.

The grapes are hand-picked in early February with a ripeness of 25 Balling. Each bunch is pre-chilled before being destemmed and berry sorted. The berries are not crushed but are fermented whole. This allows for a gradual extraction of tannins and colour, which promotes finesse, balance and longevity. The berries are fermented in open-top fermenters, which provide easy access for the winemaker to assess and manipulate the fermentation. The wine is punched down regularly for 8 days and then basket pressed directly to new and second fill, 300L American oak barrels. Malolactic fermentation takes place in the barrel, which promotes harmony and seamless integration of the oak flavours.

Vondeling meaning ‘foundling’ lies on the slopes of the unspoilt and undiscovered Paardeberg mountain approximately 45 minutes’ drive from Cape Town. It was granted to Swedish immigrant Oloff Bergh in 1704 and a three-centuries-old winemaking tradition began. Today an environmentally sensitive approach to farming and minimal intervention during the winemaking process ensure wine with a distinct fingerprint of origin. Vondeling’s flagship wines Vondeling Babiana and Vondeling Monsonia are named after rare species of fynbos that are endemic to the Paardeberg mountain the home of Vondeling Wines.