There are few things more valuable than consistency when it comes to wine. Especially in a challenging and unpredictable region like Cape Agulhas, the ability to craft beautiful wines with steady, incremental improvement vintage after vintage is key. It shows mastery of both vineyard and winery. And it serves as the most important indicator that a farm and winemaking team are in sync.
Since the establishment of our winery on the farm 5 years ago, creating the highest level of consistency has been priority. With projects like Seven Rows, we’ve pushed and explored all options to better understand every single row of vines on the farm, improve our farming practices, and articulate these results each year in the winery to build on them for the next.
The 2023 Platter’s results have been a wonderful reinforcement that all of this effort is paying off.
Every Single Vineyard wine submitted scored 90+ points and nearly every single Seven Rows wine did the same.
Single Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc
The highest blocks on the farm, these two vineyards are side-by-side atop a southeast facing slope overlooking the dam. The only difference between the two? Soil. With the Pincushion in a red, rocky, iron-rich Koffieklip soil and the Sugarbush in a fast-draining sandy loam soil – these two wines are stunningly different from one another. Fermented and matured in stainless steal to maintain purity of fruit, these two wines are of the most complex and most bold white wines we make. They are a pure, untethered expression of Cape Agulhas Sauvignon Blanc. They make for a phenomenal food pairing wine and to the surprise of many, they age beautifully.
Single Vineyard Syrah
Cool climate Syrah is quickly on the rise both here in South Africa and around the world. Red fruit, soft tannin, elegance and finesse drive the way for a cultivar known to many as big, bold, and sometimes overbearing. Similar to the Sauvignon Blanc, these two unbelievably expressive blocks of vineyard share only one difference: soil. Both on the nose and the palate, the differences created by this single variable are immense. While tasting next to eachother, one is really able to appreciate the importance of terroir.
Seven Rows
Ben Nevis Sauvignon Blanc: 94, Snowbush: 93, Semillon: 90
These small-batch, incredibly premium wines represent the best of the best of what our farm has to offer. Through a variety of technology and years and years of experimentation, each vine utilised for this range of wines is selected, tended to and harvested by hand.
On average, only 100-200 cases of each is produced. Because of this, Seven Rows remains available EXCLUSIVELY to Lomond Cellar Club Members. Look out for an email from our sales team soon on the next club member release.