in 2004, the Saronsberg winery began harvesting its first Sauvignon Blanc. Located in the Tulbagh Valley, 120 kilometres north-east of Cape Town and around 80 kilometres from the Atlantic coast, the estate has the Waveren and Welgegund vineyards.
The region has a continental climate, with Mediterranean summers and cold, damp winters. However, there is a wide range of terroirs due to different soils from sandy to slate, different altitudes, orientations and microclimates. Saronsberg wants to take advantage of this and relies on "small-scale" cultivation "to produce wines with different flavour profiles, which gives us more blending options. The resulting wines have a broader, multi-layered flavour profile with more depth."
Because the focus is on cuvées, a large number of grape varieties are cultivated. Shiraz accounts for 50 % of all plantings. The rest are Grenache, Mourvèdre, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec, Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Viognier, Nouvelle, Chenin Blanc, Sémillon and Muscat de Frontignan.
The highest quality standards are evident in the vineyard and cellar: ecologically sustainable standards, green harvesting, harvesting by hand, "forced cooling" to four degrees after the harvest, multi-stage selection, use of gravity instead of pumps and careful barrel ageing are a matter of course here.
© Photos: Saronsberg Cellar
