Unique in many ways, the Western Cape of South Africa provides excellent opportunities for wine production. Its largely disease free climate and warm autumn weather allows grapes to ripen fully with little or none of the disease treatments that are seen in much of the winemaking world.
 

Whilst all wines can benefit from these optimal conditions, it provides fortified winemakers with an almost unparalleled opportunity to take in grapes with near perfect sugar concentration and flavour characteristics for fortified wine production. Combine this with the fact that South Africa's distilling heritage allows access to some of the best fortifying spirit available and the chance to produce fortified wines here is irresistible.
 

We have vineyards across the region allowing access to varied parcels of grapes representing some of the best terroir in the Western Cape. In 2006 we planted the first Durif plantings in South Africa. Sometimes referred to as Petit Syrah this now little heard of varietal has become increasingly rare with little existing other than small pockets in Australia and California. Capable of making very distinctive wines with excellent aging potential we are very excited to see how the vines adapt to the South African soils; we harvested for the first time in 2009 and the initial results have been very promising. Only time will tell!
 

In keeping with the great potential of the region we make both red wines and fortified “port” style wines. Our inaugural 2006 vintage was very well received and as production increases year by year we hope to make the wines more widely available – check for the latest availability.