Produced with fruit from two hilltop sites in the Bottelary ward. This bottling expresses all the concentration and nervous tension that comes from the sites’ extremely rocky granitic soils.
Wine of Origin Stellenbosch
| Winemaker: | Jean Smit |
| Cultivar: | 100% Cabernet Franc |
| Origin: | Bottelary, Stellenbosch |
Tasting notes:
When timed correctly, Cabernet Franc is one of the most dynamic cultivars on earth. The 2025 vintage has managed to capture broad swathes of that energy and charm.
The nose is savoury before it is sweet: freshly sliced plum tomato and dried Mediterranean herbs, followed by black cherry and the soft lift of a red rose. The palate drifts gently in the opposite direction, opening with welcoming red cherry fruit and a touch of strawberry candy, before tightening into a narrow beam of tart raspberry and sour cherry brightness. The tannins are delicate in weight and long in reach, holding the fruit in shape well into the generous savoury tail.
Notes on the 2025 Vintage:
Winter came late to Stellenbosch in 2025 and left slowly. July delivered record rainfall, but cold-unit accumulation ran roughly three weeks behind the previous season. Budburst was late, but heavy October rain allowed vigorous growth through the canopies, and flowering came in settled air, spared the wind that had battered the blossom the season prior.
Summer arrived with a single sharp heat spike over Christmas and then stood down. January maximums ran as much as 3 °C cooler than the previous year, with cooler nights alongside them, and the cool weather held through February and into March. That stretched the pleasantly dry picking season out at the far end. Our Cabernet Franc was hand-harvested between 12 and 14 March 2025, roughly two weeks later than in 2024.
Vineyards:
This trellised Bottelary vineyard was planted with the CF1 Cabernet Franc clone in 2004. Located 16.5 km north of False Bay and 22.5 km east of Table Bay, the maritime influence is considerable — an element that reads clearly in the wine.
The combination of the vineyard’s cooler east-facing aspect, decomposed granite soils, and 225 m altitude produces low-yielding vines with smaller bunches, delivering remarkable concentration and structure.
Winemaking:
Grapes were hand-harvested between 12 and 14 March 2025. Bunches were de-stemmed and gravity-fed into tulip-shaped concrete fermenters, where whole berries were cold-soaked for three days prior to primary fermentation.
Pump-overs were performed up to three times per day, with fermentation temperatures peaking at 28 °C. Spontaneous malolactic conversion took place during ten months of maturation in 2,000L Austrian oak foudre. The wine was racked just once, two weeks before bottling.
Maturation:
This wine will continue to mature and improve for more than a decade.
Technical:
Total production: 1668 × 750ml and 100 × 1500ml
Bottling date: 13 January 2026
Alc: 13.42 % Vol
pH: 3.57
TA: 5.3 g/L
RS: 1.6 g/L