It’s winemaker Matthew Copeland’s solemn belief that he is searching for the ‘almost perfect wine’. “A tiny flaw in a wine serves as the window through which we view all the other salient features of the wine. Alternatively, to quote Leonard Cohen: ‘It’s the cracks that let the light through…’”

Minimal intervention during the winemaking process ensures wines with a unique ‘fingerprint’ of origin. The day’s fruit, carefully picked in the cool of the early mornings, is transported in lug boxes to a refrigerated storeroom adjoining the cellar where the grapes are cooled down to 6°C. This is followed by destemming and berry sorting by hand. The winery, a cleverly converted milking shed, is equipped with a raised trussed ceiling and open-top stainless steel tanks for extra gentle handling of fruit.

Some of the grapes are whole bunch pressed, which retains natural acidity and also promotes juice extraction. Separate vinification of specific blocks and natural fermentations are an integral part of the process. Basket pressing, hand plunging, minimal filtering and no fining also feature in the
hands-on approach.

Wines are matured in first-, second- and third-fill French oak barrels in the atmospheric barrel maturation cellar with its thick clay walls and rietdak ceiling. Production at this boutique winery will be capped at 240 tons.