South Africa: New releases

The Ramnasgras Cinsault is as pure and complex an expression as you’ll find of Cinsault, also known as Hermitage in South Africa, and the country’s workhorse red grape. It comes from a vineyard planted in 1966, and is ageworthy, mineral, and stunningly long. There's loads of pomegranate fruit, salinity, and iron oxide in 2019. So complex.

The Family White is a blend of Chenin Blanc alongside Grenache Blanc, Verdelho, Roussanne, Palomino and Semillon. It shows the classic tautness of the Paardeberg’s granite soils, but with a few years in bottle, it flourishes, becoming waxy, mineral, honeyed but yet still savoury. This is stunning. Orchard fruit, grapefruit and a hint of cinnamon. This is so complex, so much tension and a finish that lasts an age. Brilliant.

Just twelve long rows make up the Raaigras Grenache vineyard. Planted in 1952, it’s the oldest Grenache vineyard in the Cape, and faces south east, allowing the longest ripening time possible. Adi jokes that its name rhymes with Rayas, but this is a serious, delicious, ageworthy Grenache in its own right.