Graft Syrah 2021, Lukas van Loggerenberg Wines, Paarl

South Africa meets the Rhone, with lashings of garrigue, pepper and spice. Raspberry and black cherry coulis – ripe with fine grained, present tannins, lavender and bramble, very crisp with dark spices such as clove, iodine – lots of iron and blood orange, yet the core of the wine is sweetly fruited and scented.

Van Loggerenberg Wines is a family-run winery based in Paarl, making low-intervention, site-specific wines from vineyards mainly in the Stellenbosch and Swartland appellations. “For me, freshness and purity are paramount. I want to express the vineyard sites with elegance, balance and bags of flavour – Lukas van Loggerenberg, Winemaker.

The fruit was 100% whole bunch naturally fermented with one punch down performed daily. After pressing, the wine was transferred to barrels where it underwent malolactic fermentation. The barrels were blended after 10 months and bottled right after. No enzymes or commercial yeasts were used in making the wines.