In the middle of 2016 John & Tasha commissioned a writer friend to write a series of short children’s stories about growing up on the Cape, and used those stories as the inspiration for the names for the red wines. This blend showcases the diversity across the Cape and after two vintages as a pure GSM blend, 2021 saw the introduction of a very small portion of Carignan. John makes the call for when to pick mostly on acidity, and this wine really highlights that, with plenty of freshness and vitality. Over the past few years, he has slowly dialed up the Syrah component in this wine to take advantage of these wonderful dark, peppery wines that compliment the other components so well. Grenache expresses place so well and delivers gritty tannins, Mourvèdre produces wild and idiosyncratic wines with a gentle generosity, and this year, Carignan adds craggy tannins and an ever-so-slight umami note.
This is a wine that features many of the best sites around the Cape. Not being held to a singular place, it really shines as layers of soils, grapes and climates meld. Each site is hand-picked and fermented separately. The grapes were fermented 50-100% whole cluster depending on site and fruit condition. After 40-45 days on skins the grapes were pressed to barrel. Post-ML the blends were trialed and finalized, and then racked back to barrel. After nine months in total it was racked to tank to be bottled without fining and with a gentle cross-flow filtration and a small addition of sulfur.