Product Description
In search of new and interesting places to produce wines in the late 1990s, Spice Route Owner Charles Back stumbled upon a tank of Sauvignon Blanc in a Swartland cooperative. The wine was of such a high quality that he found it difficult to believe that it hailed from the Swartland – a warm area from which one would not generally expect such a fine Sauvignon Blanc. Driven by both excitement and disbelief, Charles set out to inspect the vineyard responsible for producing the surprising wine. His incredulity was further heightened when he arrived at the home of the vineyard – a derelict old tobacco farm playing host to South Africa’s oldest Sauvignon Blanc block. Planted in 1965, the persevering old dryland bushvine inspired Charles to explore the unchartered potential of the land, and it was thus that the Spice Route Wine Company was born on the farm (known as Klein Amoskuil) in 1997. It took Charles and his newly hired winemaker, Eben Sadie, two years to fine tune the cellar and where to plant the various vineyards on the untouched soils of the farm. Digging up soils to understand the geological patchwork which would be the foundation of this viticultural frontier, transforming old tobacco sheds into a small winery, tailored to the intense style of wine which the old Klein Amoskuil farm would produce.
Black cherry infused with cardamom and nutmeg on the bouquet. Intense fruit shows well on the palate, with elegant iron-like tones adding to the savoury character of the wine. Medium bodied with elegant oak from the old French barrels.