Old Vine Cinsault

Ideal with beef fillet, game with cranberry sauce, seared tuna and mushroom risotto. Delicious with a raspberry crème brûlée. Serve chilled.

The Certified Heritage Vineyard that produces our Cinsault grapes was planted in 1974. It is a dryland, bush vine and low yielding vineyard that produces exceptional fruit. The South West facing vineyard has ancient decomposed granite soil, that adds to the minerality in the wine. The vines are packed with hay bales at their feet to retain moisture and as a natural way of keeping weeds at bay.

The wine was then aged for 12 months before being bottled, unfiltered.

This vineyard is closest to the farm shed so picking is fast and efficient. The fruit was harvested by hand at first light, and cool grapes were delivered to the winery. A portion of the grapes went to open fermenters, mostly whole clusters with stalks intact. These grapes were cold soaked for 72 hours and inoculated with a Rhône yeast strain. A second portion was placed in open 500l barrels and naturally fermented. The different components were aged separately and then optimally blended.

The heritage wines, all handcrafted from old character plantings on our farm in Wellington, celebrate a unique combination of the decomposed granite terroir, the exceptional light and the timeless mastery of the winemaker, and offer an enduring expression of the classic Cape wine tradition so globally envied of this region for centuries.