Spice Route Grenache, Swartland 2021
Vibrant ruby in colour. This displays lifted aromas of red berry fruit, white pepper and cardamom on the nose. On the palate, juicy acidity and bright fruit are tempered by subtle spice notes. An elegant and restrained style of Grenache with silky texture and supple tannins.
Planted in 2006, these unirrigated bush vines from Amoskuil farm have started to show promising results, with the potential to produce complex wines. Even the antelope that roam wild on the farm have a particular preference for this vineyard, often nibbling on the low-hanging bush vine fruit.
The hand-picked grapes were fermented in open concrete fermenters with manual punch downs, before they were gently pressed and transferred to old French oak barrels for malolactic fermentation. The wine then spent 16 months maturing in barrel prior to bottling.
| RRP | £17.99 |
| Bottle size | 75cl |
| Vintage | 2021 |
| Alcoholic strength | 14% |
| Country | South Africa |
| Region | Coastal Region |
| Subregion | Swartland |
| Grapes | Grenache 100% |
| Residual sugar (g/l) | 2 |
| Vegetarian | Yes |
| Vegan | Yes |
| Organic | Yes |
| Biodynamic | No |
| Closure | Natural Cork |
| Winemaker | Charl du Plessis |
Charles Back was an early pioneer in the Swartland, founding Spice Route there in 1998 after tasting an exceptional Sauvignon Blanc and immediately buying the land on which it grew. “Without [Charles]…the Swartland would still be regarded as a rural backwater”, wrote Tim Atkin MW, who awarded the winery ‘Cru Bourgeois’ status in his South Africa Classification in 2019. Today, the Swartland is the source of many of South Africa’s outstanding wines, and Spice Route remains one of its best and most credible producers. This is largely because they own all their own vineyards, driven by a belief that that producing exceptional wine begins in the vines. Their vineyard holdings are comprised of 100 hectares in Malmesbury and Darling. The former, all bush trained and planted on Malmesbury shale and red clay subsoils, give the fruit grown there an intensity that makes this region so exciting.
Winemaker Charl du Plessis has been with Charles since 2002 and knows the region intimately. Charles is keen to capture the flavours and structure of the outstanding fruit he has grown. In fact, despite the desert-like conditions of the region, the vines are never irrigated.
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