Spice Route Mourvèdre, Swartland 2023
A dark ruby hue in the glass. An impressive bouquet of ripe black cherries and plums, raspberry, cardamom and wild herbs. The palate is intense and opulent with juicy black and red fruit flavours, tempered by a subtle savoury edge. It is medium bodied, with ripe tannins and well-integrated oak.
Spice Route is producing some of the most exciting wines in the Swartland. The grapes were harvested from unirrigated bush vines, which were originally planted in 2001 on deep Koffieklip and Oakleaf soils. The average yield was 3.5 tons per hectare.
Grapes were hand harvested, de-stemmed and lightly crushed into open concrete fermenters. Regular manual punch downs during the 7-day fermentation period ensured optimal extraction, before the wine was pressed off the skins and transferred to seasoned French and American barrels.
| RRP | £18.99 |
| Bottle size | 75cl |
| Vintage | 2023 |
| Alcoholic strength | 13% |
| Country | South Africa |
| Region | Coastal Region |
| Subregion | Swartland |
| Grapes | Mourvèdre 100% |
| Residual sugar (g/l) | 2.2 |
| 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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