The Anysbos estate is a nearly 1,000 acre farm that is home to olive groves, goats, and 60 acres of vines from which just two wines are made: ‘DisDit’ (a white blend) and this red blend, ‘Tesame.’ The name means “together” in Afrikaans, and symbolizes the beautiful, breathing organism that is a farm estate, all the plants and crops and animals living together in a Botrivier paradise. The 2021 vintage of this Grenache – Syrah – Cinsault blend is the second to make it stateside, and it perfectly encompasses everything that there is to love about Marelise’s winemaking style: it plays on power, delicacy, and poise like light evening rain after a canicular day. And, in the words of Christian Eedes, “Being Grenache driven, there’s a sense that future vintages will only grow in gravitas as the vines attain some age.” The 2021 vintage sees a higher portion of Syrah than the previous one.
The whole bunches were partially destemmed into small, open top fermenting tanks during which a natural fermentation started after 4 days of cold soaking. Punch downs were done by hand, twice a day, resulting in gentle extraction of color, flavor and tannins. After fermentation, the grapes were pressed into 225 liter French oak barrels for malolactic fermentation and maturation. All three varieties were matured separately for 20 months before blending and bottling with a gentle crossflow filtration.