B Vintners, Red Blend, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 2021

Producer Profile

In celebration of their Bruwer family heritage cousins, Bruwer Raats and Gavin Bruwer Slabbert created Bruwer Vintners Vine Exploration Company in 2014.

Their guiding mission is to craft exceptional wines showcasing their heritage, the unique terroir and, through this, create a new future for South African wine. “We’re storytellers, always eager to honour our Cape heritage and historically-linked varieties. However, there are learnings to be taken from the past too, and it is important to incorporate these lessons today in order to produce finer wine for tomorrow’s wine drinkers,” explains Gavin. The result is a range that carefully balances two realms of the winemaking spectrum. By honouring the heritage of the Cape and incorporating innovative and minimal intervention winemaking techniques, B Vintners allows the vineyard to tell the tale, expertly crafting the most honest expression of the fruit of the vine. Today, B Vintners is an award-winning, terroir-driven range that blends a bit of the past and present to bring you a taste of the future.

Viticulture

Plantings are determined by where the varieties are best suited. The areas granitic soils, altitude and cooling ocean breezes allow grapes to ripen beautifully and produce quality grapes which show the terroir. Grenache and Pinotage come from young vineyards, giving the wine fruit and aromatic excitement, while mature Polkadraai Hills Syrah vineyards give the wine structure, depth of flavour and a further sense of place.

Winemaking

After fermentation, the wine is aged in used 300L French Oak barrels for 12 months.

Tasting Note

The blend combination of the wine makes it unique to South Africa – Grenache, Syrah and Pinotage. The Grenache gives florals and freshness, Syrah its characteristic spice and structure and the Pinotage gives fruit depth to the wine. This special South African red blend gives immediate enjoyment but you’d also be rewarded by cellaring for 2-5 years.

Food Matching

Wild mushroom risotto or pan roasted duck breast.

Awards

Tim Atkin South Africa Special Report 2023 92 Points
Bruwer Raats calls this first release his "South African Rhône blend", made with Grenache, 36% Syrah and 27% Pinotage. Focused on grapes from the Polkadraai Hills, it's juicy, fresh and stony with fynbos and garrigue aromas, pepper, clove, bramble and red cherry flavours and layered, understated tannins. 2023-29. 92 Points, TA, August 2023.