The ‘Prince of Peace’ is a label for Charla’s husband and son. “Casper, a man who radiates sweet sincere kindness and gentleness, is the epitome of peace. He is the steadfast one and the calm in (my, our) storm. Our son definitely follows in these gentle footsteps of his father,” says Charla. This wine, which is equal parts Grenache and Syrah, comes from the ‘unicorn’ Sijnn vineyard site in Malgas. These are low-yielding bush vines grown on large rocks. Charla says she is “extremely grateful” to be working with this fruit that brings “sheer quality and intensity.” Part of that intensity surely comes from the fact that the 2021 vintage is coming off the back of an extreme drought from 2015-2020, leading to low pH wines. This wine talks in contrasting ways: the label tells a story of a calm and gentle night sky, yet the wine is one of vibrance and life.

The grapes were picked in the early morning and sorted in the vineyards. Both varieties fermented spontaneously in open-top fermenters; the Grenache fermented as equal parts de-stemmed then crushed fruit and whole-bunch fruit and the Syrah was 90% crushed and de-stemmed with 10% whole bunches added to the ferment. Post fermentation, the lots were gently pressed into separate, older 225L barrels for malolactic fermentation. After about 10 months in barrel, these two wines were blended, and left for another 9 months. The wine was hand-bottled and labeled, unfined and unfiltered with just a small amount of sulfur. Un-fined, unfiltered. Hand bottled and labelled.