Fire by Night 2021

Located on a plateau in the heart of Paardeberg, the Fire by Night cuvée comes from a goblet-grown Chenin Blanc vineyard. The soil is made of pure decomposed granite , giving taut and precise wines. The vines date from 1972 and 1985 on different slopes. This wine is the result of meticulous work. The grapes were sorted by hand and pressed into whole clusters. The juice is very lightly settled and fermentation takes place naturally in cement eggs and old barrels of different sizes. Fermentation lasted about a month. The wine was aged on lees for approximately 12 months , then rested in vats for another 6 months before bottling without filtration. Careful vinification without chemical inputs. This cuvée reveals complex notes of orange blossom , acacia flower , red apple , citrus zest , peach , hay , dried herbs and kumquat . The palate is distinguished and pure, with fine acidity and delicate substance. Clear, mineral, great concentration, with a long and refreshing finish.

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.