Wanderer’s Heart 2022
Cape Red
Tasting Notes
In the middle of 2016 we commissioned a writer friend to write a series of short children’s stories, and we used these stories as the inspiration for the names for our red wines.
The 2022 Wanderer’s Heart is our signature Cape Red – a wine that is built around various incredible vineyards found all over the Western Cape. The wine is focused, with blackberry, black forest cake and crushed gravel on the nose. The tannins are fine -grained and integrated into a savoury palate of black olive brine, white pepper and wild strawberries.
Nuts & Bolts
Syrah – 45% Breedekloof (8 years old) and Bot River (16 years old) - shale soils
Grenache noir – 33% Breedekloof (8 years old) - shale soils
Carignan - 13% Breedekloof (8 years old) - shale soils
Mourvèdre – 9% Bot River (17 years old) – gravel/clay duplex soil
Residual sugar – 1.9 g/L
Total acidity – 5.4 g/L; pH 3.45
About The Wine
Our travels in the Western Cape have brought us into contact with many fantastic grape growers, and we have long been developing our idea of a Cape Red, and seeking the vineyards that can deliver the kinds of wines we seek. Syrah is now being planted on incredible sites all over the Cape and we have steadily increased the amount of Syrah in the blend as it is just so damn exciting. High density plantings on shale lend incredible depth and perfume to the blend. Grenache has a great future in the Cape, where it is able to produce high quality wines in dryland conditions, and for its ability to express its origins. Carignan and Mourvèdre produce wild and idiosyncratic wines that lend a certain generosity and pleasure to the blend.
One area in which we do an enormous amount of work is in picking our grapes at the right time. We rent a truck during harvest so that we are able to pick our vineyards precisely when we need to. This is the area of our work into which all the blood, sweat and tears is poured. Once our picking is done right, we are able to simplify things immensely in the winery. Picking is done early to retain the freshness and clarity of expression of the vineyard, while not sacrificing the pleasure that ripe fruit brings to the wine.
As with all our wines, the winemaking is extremely simple. We put around 60% of the crop into the bottom of an open vat as whole bunches and then destem the rest on top of that. During fermentation we punch the cap down a couple of times a day to keep it wet. Once we are happy with the structure in the wine, it is pressed off in an old basket press. The wines spend 30-40 days on skins to really round out their structure.
The wines go through malolactic fermentation and around 9 months maturation in old oak barrels. We keep sulphur dioxide levels as low as possible during maturation and only make small adjustments before bottling.