“Our Riebeekberg Grenache was made from bush vines planted on schist soils on the slopes of the Riebeekberg in the Swartland.”

Gentle and minimum intervention with a ‘hands-off ’ approach to reflect the terroir of the Riebeekberg. After hand picking in the early morning, bunches were destemmed into small fermenting tanks keeping 30% 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 postfermentation 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 August 2024.

ANALYSIS: ALC 12.9% | RS 1.9 g/l | TA 5.8 g/l | pH 3.42