“Our Piekenierskloof Grenache is made is made from two neighbouring dryland bush vine sites – the oldest planted in 1987 – on Table Mountain sandstone soils around 750m altitude in the Citrusdal mountains.”

Bright strawberries, fresh moss and rose jump from the glass before the palate delivers more red fruit including raspberry and pomegranate. There is a Pinot-esque quality to the wine, with forest floor, pine and nutmeg referencing the portion of whole bunches used. Tannins are fine-grained and black-tea-like, while the finish has the tartness and savoury edge of cherry pith.

Gentle and minimum intervention with a ‘hands-off ’ approach to reflect the terroir of the Citrusdal mountains. After hand picking in the early morning, bunches were destemmed into small fermenting tanks, keeping 20% whole clusters. I allowed four days of cold soaking on skins for flavour to develop before a natural fermentation started. Punch downs were done by hand, twice a day, resulting in gentle extraction, preserving the grape’s natural character. An additional post-fermentation maceration of 10 days was allowed to extract the finer, softer tannins. After a total of 4 weeks on the skins, grapes were gently pressed with an old basket press into older French oak 225 L barrels for malolactic fermentation and maturation. Total time in barrel: 16 months. No fining. Bottled in April 2025.

ANALYSIS: Alc 13.65% | RS 1.8 g/l | TA 5.4 g/l | pH 3.47