BLACK 2010

This wine is a red blend of Swartland Syrah, Mourvedre & Grenache - a joint venture between myself and a friend, Albert Ahrens.

The Story:

Personally, I think that the future for South African wine lies in elegance. I always rate the first empty bottle at a dinner table as the best wine of the night. Our goal with BLACK 2010 therefore was to create a wine which represents Swartland terroir; something super complex, layered and funky - but at the same time ultra elegant. Think princess Diana on a spring-day morning in the gardens of Buckingham palace.

The project has gained momentum with our first vintage sold out in 6 months. We are now sourcing grapes from 6 different vineyards. 4 of these are Syrah, each one growing on a specific soil type. Each soil type produce grapes and ultimately wine with certain characteristics. From the decomposed granitic soils found in the quaint valleys of the Northern Paardeberg as well as the decomposed granite soil with shale and quartz to the east, we make voluptuous wines; not super structured, but with curves in all the right places. From the slate soils in Riebeeck however, we get wine with immense structure. And finally, to polish this all off, we have small parcels of Grenache and Mourvedre, also from the Paardeberg, adding red fruit and velvet tannins - fresh and exciting.

We therefore build dimension, depth and complexity into this wine by making use of the vineyards, not winemaking techniques.

We de-stem by hand, crush the grapes with our feet and ferment wild (no added yeast) in open top fermenters. The wine is then pressed and aged in small French oak barrels for 12 months, then blended and aged in big French oak barrels for another 6 months. Bottling took place in June 2011.

Decant this wine 30 minutes before drinking and enjoy the ultimate balance between complexity and drinkability. Trust me you will finish a bottle in no time... - elegance personified!