‘Queen of Spades’ is a rare South African Tinta Amarela from dry-farmed bush vines planted in 1999. Craig came across this vineyard (0.1ha) through good friend, Rick McGrindle, a farmer from the Abbotsdale/Paardeberg region. The grapes were thought to be Tempranillo when planted but turned out to be Tinta Amarela, which is a grape he personally loves from his experiences working in Portugal. No shoot thinning is done in this block. Rather, leaves are left to provide shade which Craig find brings more elegance to the wine. Cover cropping with nitrogen fixing plants is done every year. There are only 300 vines so it’s tough to manage this on such a small scale but they try their best to fill a barrel every year. As for the label, it’s a photo taken by one of their friends Brian Short’s brother (Kevin Short) during his time spent at Burning Man in the USA. Craig adapted the photo to portray a perception of a “Love/Hate” relationship between the Queen of Spades and the Queen of Hearts.
The grapes were hand harvested and placed into open tanks for spontaneous whole cluster fermentation. After 12 days, the wine was pressed off the skins and was sent to three 500L French barrels for full malo and aging. The wine was blended & bottled with a gentle filtration and sulfur addition. No fining.
