For many years, I worked with Bordeaux style varietals, until Rosa Kruger found this amazing vineyard of Grenache from Agter Paardeberg. After one vintage (2014) with this block, I could not purchase grapes from this block again until 2019. The 2020-vintage is my 3rd vintage from this specific vineyard. The winemaking started with many visits to the vineyard and picking at the ripeness that would make a lighter Grenache-style of wine. Fermenting it with minimal interference, this wine takes a life of its own. I placed it in older small French Oak Barrels, and then go through all various stages including: Picked in small crates and left overnight in cold room to bring temperature down to roughly 10 degrees Celsius The challenge is to interpret the current vintage conditions in order to balance whole bunch, destemming of grapes and adding stalks (tannins). A combination of whole bunch, destemmed grapes and stalks go into a stainless steel tank and left until natural fermentation starts. One to two soft pump overs per day and left for roughly 2 weeks, pressed and wine transferred into older 225L French oak barrels (minimum oxidation during the process) Barrel aging commences for 12 – 15 months
