Perhaps one of our most interesting new producers, Bernard Bredell is embarked on a rescue mission to keep hold of old vines in some of Stellenbosch`s most interesting sites. His family had owned these vineyards for nearly a century but circumstances meant they had to be sold. Bernhard is renting the best ones back from the new owners to save them from being grubbed up and replanted with commercial varieties. He is proving that not all trendy Cape wine has to come from Swartland.

Bernhard is a man of the soil, or rather dust as this decomposed granite, schist and shale becomes in the dry heat here. His small plots of old vines struggle to produce 20 tons of fruit a year, so this is a small operation. Scions is organic in the vineyards, where chemicals are pretty much unknown and even the weeding is done by hand. Meticulous viticulture leads to amazingly complex and vivid fruit and so in the cellar the wine does not require making; only guidance. Only natural yeasts are used, minimal sulphur – in fact minimal everything apart from the well kept old oak. Hygiene is immaculate and barrels checked for health everyday. Whites here have days of skin contact so textures are as fascinating as the fruit and terroir flavours.

This is a young and vigorous enterprise firmly grafted onto ancient roots and Bernhard has the St-Exupery philosophy of borrowing his land from the next generation. He is making pure, authentic, truthful wines with real character. (CW 24/07/20)