Let's talk little, let's talk wine
Sadie Family Pofadder is an organic, barrel-aged red wine produced from the Cinsault grape variety by The Sadie Family in the Swartland appellation of the Coastal Region of South Africa. Sourced from old Cinsault vines, over 45 years old and located on Mount Kasteelberg, Pofadder benefits from slate and decomposed sandstone soils, cultivated using organic methods with a yield restricted to 30 hl/ha. Cinsault, known for its complexity to cultivate and vinify, requires meticulous care. The grapes, hand-picked, are fermented in open barrels, with one or two punch-downs daily to ensure adequate fermentation. After a month of maceration, the wine is pressed and aged for 12 months in old wooden barrels, before being bottled without any treatment or filtration. The name of the wine, The Sadie Family Pofadder, pays homage to a local snake, the Pofadder, infamous for causing the death of a winemaker in the 1940s. This wine, produced in limited quantities, highlights the Cinsault, nicknamed the "Pinot Noir of Swartland", revealing all the elegance and finesse of this grape variety.
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The little history of the country
South Africa
The first vines were planted in South Africa by Dutch settlers in the 1650s, although wine production did not really begin to take off until the arrival of French Protestants, in the 1680s, with their skills and their knowledge of viticulture. Stellenbosch is also a historic wine region, with the first vineyards being planted there in the 1690s. Today South Africa is one of the most important wine producing countries in the southern hemisphere. With over 300 years of winemaking history, it is often described as a bridge between the Old and New Worlds. The majority of wines are produced using New World winemaking techniques, but they often have more in common stylistically with their Old World counterparts. Since the end of apartheid, South African wine has received international attention and acclaim for its wide variety of styles. South Africa's wine industry is spread across the lush and rugged landscape of the Western Cape. Here, the abundance of mountains, valleys and plateaus allows winemakers to produce a wide variety of styles. Vineyards can also be found in the Orange River region of the Northern Cape, where the flat, arid landscape is dominated by the Kalahari Desert. Most of South Africa's wine regions have a Mediterranean climate, strongly influenced by the meeting of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The country's signature grape variety is Pinotage, an indigenous cross of Pinot Noir and Cinsaut that is rarely found in quantity in other wine-producing countries. Shiraz (Syrah) is also widely planted, as are Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot (often combined in a Bordeaux blend). South African Chardonnay, Chenin and Sauvignon Blanc have become popular internationally in recent years.