Tin Soldier 2024
Semillon gris
Tasting Notes
Tin Soldier is a partially skin-fermented wine made from Semillon gris, which is almost unique to South Africa, and a vestige of a time when Semillon was the grape on which the South African wine industry was built. The vineyard has been established from a sélection massale of Semillon gris cuttings taken from an adjacent vineyard of Semillon that was planted in 1963.
The colour of the wine is unusual, having taken some bright copper tones from about a week’s fermentation on skins. The wine shows aromas of ripe apricot, Thai basil, nutmeg and toasted pistachio, redolent of baklava.
The interplay between savoury and sweet is a key point of interest in Tin Soldier, and makes for a subtle and engaging wine. The wine shows complex aromas of gingerbread, tangerine rind, blood orange and flint. The palate has rich notes of yellow apples, crème caramel and orange cake with textured tannins recalling quince and rooibos tea.
Nuts & Bolts
Semillon gris – Swartland 11 years old – granite sands
Residual sugar – 3.1 g/L
Total acidity – 6.1 g/L
pH 3.2
About The Wine
Our pick of the Tin Soldier vineyard is usually in the latter part of our season and the 2024 harvest was right in the normal timeframe, so the heatwaves of January were not really an issue here. The last few years I have taken care to get enough skin ripeness here so that we don’t sacrifice complexity in the wines. Still, these are poor granite soils so we can’t hang the grapes out forever.
This wine is composed of a portion of grapes which are pressed to old oak barrels and another portion which is fermented on skins (no stems) for 7-10 days in open vats. Later in the year we play a little with these blending components to get the texture and weight of the wine just right. The interplay of fruit and aromatic lift from the direct pressed wines, and the savoury tones from the skin-fermentation is key to this wine’s appeal.
If we go back 100 years, Semillon was responsible for probably 95% of the wine made in this country. Tim James’ research on the variety suggests that the red mutation may at one time have been even more common than the white. I’m really fascinated by the idea of the kind of wines that would have been made in the old days using these mixed vineyards, and this led me to the idea of fermenting the grapes on their skins for a few days to bring out more of the colour and texture of this wonderful grape.
All of our wines take their names from archetypal childrens’ toys, and Tin Soldier takes its name from Semillon’s status as the old footsoldier of the South African industry. Much like the old toy soldiers buried in the garden, Semillon has been reduced to a mere shadow of its former glory days in the Cape.