Coterie by Wildeberg Cinsault Rose

The Earth’s mantle thrusts up above the gentle town of Franschhoek, a wild slice of untamed mountain on which sits a farm named Wildeberg. An established wine region for some 350 years, sensible generations never thought to plant a vine here until a happy band of idealists recently craned their necks up at this hillside and, dizzy with hope, decided to give it a go. Franschhoek is on the very edge of the south-eastern corner of the Cape’s venerable Coastal Region, indeed Wildeberg’s property border runs over the top of the mountain where the Coastal Region gives way to the baboon-strewn road to Grabouw and the wider Western Cape.
The Wildeberg wines express the most captivating Franschhoek Valley fruit. In these Wildeberg Terroirs bottlings, the idea is to look beyond the home vineyards to a clutch of exceptional sites of other origin.
A mountain rich in metaphor with the visual heft to flatter any wine, releases of Wildeberg and Terroirs express our continued purpose – exceptional wines of place, however humble the origin. If the abiding memory of our wines remains a textural sense of place then we are portraying the Cape as hoped.

Cinsault,

A Wildeberg wine begins life when we fall for a specific vineyard. The next step is simply expressing that place. In this case we fell upon a block of organically-farmed, dry-grown bush-vine Cinsault grown on the Agter-Paarl’s mineral seams.

The fruit was picked at a ripeness optimal for this rose’s natural acidity, in the cool of dawn and trucked up the road to Wildeberg. The fruit harvested made just a full single press, which was then gently squeezed to old French oak demi-muids for natural fermentation. The colour comes just from that light press and spends no further time on skins. The gourd-shaped bottle amplifies the shallot-skin hue of the wine and the individual printed wraps protect the wine from light-strike until opened.

A delicate free run Rosé of serious quality from a 30 year old bush-vine vineyard in Paarl, whose appetisingly savoury bite offsets the gentle, creamy texture.

This rose is a fine, lightly savoury wine with real depth. The older oak wraps this dry, mineral wine in a delicate creamy veil ultimately leaving a bright, structured and fine finish.

Drink chilled on its own or serve with fresh seafood, a quinoa and pomegranate salad or herb marinated grilled chicken tenders.