Waterford Estate Grenache

This Spanish varietal adores the heat of Stellenbosch and thrives in drier conditions, it makes for the perfect summer sipping red wine with its lighter body, fruity aromatics and its subtle spice qualities. Boasting a thin skin and a large berry the grape naturally leans itself towards the light-style of winemaking and with its affinity for the heat it makes it the perfect substitute for Pinot Noir.

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The Wine

The wine shows inviting aromatics of orange rind, earthy red cherry and exotic fruits, with hints of clove spice. The palate is layered with red cherries, tomato reduction, earthy notes and savoury flavours along with velvety dry tannins and a lovely freshness to carry the fruit.

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The Vineyard

The Grenache vines are grown on Waterford Estate on the rockiest soil profiles imaginable. This high drainage soil profile drys the vine's roots and forces the vine to search deep into the soil layers for its nutrients and moisture. This strain on the vine allows for the vine to grow concentrated berries, packed with flavour.

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Winemaking

Creating a unique wine with concentrated flavours and seamless balance is achieved via maturing 30% of the wine in porcelain jars and the other 70% in 500L sixth-fill French Oak Barrels. The Porcelain jars not allow for a large amount of oxygen to integrate into the wine thus maintaining a more redacted style, with higher levels of acidity and fresher fruit. The old French Oak barrels allow the wine to develop in the presence of oxygen without the addition of a harsh oak tannin, thus combining the two maturation components brings the well-developed palate to the redacted style of the wine and integrates them to create a wine with a subtle body and a seamlessly long finish.

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Wine Facts

For the first 10 years the grapes from this vineyard were solely used to produce the Blanc de Noir. Patience was required to allow time for the vineyard to mature and produce fruit of premium quality for red wine.

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