Putting wine into a can is still a pretty new trend, and putting red wine into a can is even newer. Francois Haasbroek, the Riverine winemaker, wanted to make an approachable red wine that could be enjoyed like his other two Riverine canned wines: in a portable, lightweight vessel perfect for outings on the beach, BBQs, and pretty much anywhere else you’d crack open a beer. Putting wine in a can does not mean that the wine is inherently poor quality – far from it. For Riverine, the wine remains the priority. They achieve this by sourcing excellent fruit from excellent vineyards, and lots and lots of time spent doing R&D on canned wine shelf-life stability. This Syrah-dominant blend is sourced from vineyards in West Riebeek (Swartland) where bushvines are grown on koffieklip, shale, and granite. And since a portion of sales goes to protecting the Riverine Rabbit, what more could you want from your canned wine?
Grapes were hand harvested and de-stemmed. Without being crushed, grapes were placed into stainless steel vats where they completed fermentation at 73 degrees F over the course of 10 days, with regular pump overs for better color and skin tannin extraction. The wines remained in their fermentation vessels for 8 months before being fined, filtered, and bottled in proprietary cans with just small dosage of sulfur for good measure.