Skerpioen 2022

$671.00

Format:

750ml

Eben Sadie is undoubtedly the driving force behind this field, where his sister and brother also work. A winegrower in the Swartland region, he produces, quite possibly, the best wines in South Africa. He is also one of the most striking and charismatic personalities in the southern hemisphere wine industry. Eben Sadie has extensive international experience having worked in Austria, Spain, Germany, Italy, Oregon and Burgundy. On his return to South Africa, he devoted himself to his own vineyard. The Sadie Family sources its grapes primarily from the Swartland regions, one of South Africa's warmest wine growing regions. However, all of its wines, both white and red, offer perfectly controlled alcohol levels and show no heaviness. Its supplies come from 54 plots spread over 38 hectares. All the plots are worked biodynamically and the yields are extremely low.

The Sadie Family Skerpioen, which takes its name from the word "scorpion", is a wine made from a blend of Chenin Blanc and Palomino. These grape varieties come from vines over 65 years old, planted in clay and limestone soils. Located just 2 km from the Atlantic Ocean, these vines benefit from the sea breezes which moderate the temperatures of the dry climate. Organic cultivation is favored, avoiding any chemical products likely to disrupt the natural balance of the soil, with manual harvesting at peak maturity. At the time of vinification, the two varieties are co-pressed, the juice fermenting naturally thanks to native yeasts, without the aid of additives, in old wooden barrels. The wine is then aged in ovoid concrete vats before being bottled without any treatment or filtration. This wine, The Sadie Family Skerpioen, is distinguished by its saline and mineral character, the result of an original marriage between Chenin Blanc, flexible and expressive, and Palomino, a Spanish grape variety. It is a rarity, produced in very limited quantities.

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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.

Main Region: Western Cape

It is by far the best known and most emblematic geographical area of South Africa. It is home to the prestigious regions of Stellenbosch, Paarl and Cape Town can be considered the epicenter of the wine region; the climate is essentially Mediterranean. The Western Cape region is crossed by spectacular mountain ranges which are particularly important for viticulture because they form particularly interesting microclimates for varietal diversity.

The sub-region: The Swartland

Traditionally a cereal-producing region, Swartland, whose name means "Black Land" in Dutch, has become in around fifteen years one of the most emblematic wine-growing regions in South Africa. The topography of the region is very varied and vineyards can be found on mountainsides or on the rolling hills that dot the region. The climate is warm Mediterranean with oceanic influences as we get closer to the Atlantic coast. The warm climate greatly reduces the incidence of disease. The rainfall is 400 mm per year but the region includes many plots of old, non-irrigated vines with very low yields. The floors are mainly composed of slates. There are also pockets of granite particularly around the Paardeberg mountain. Most vineyards are goblet pruned, a pruning which provides strong resistance to heat and drought. The main grape varieties of the region are Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre and Chenin Blanc.