Crystallum

Crystallum is one of South Africa's most acclaimed producers of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, a small family winery led by the gifted Peter-Allan Finlayson. Based in the cool Hemel-en-Aarde valley near the Atlantic, it has become a benchmark for elegant, Burgundian-inspired Cape wine. Its reputation has grown swiftly. The focus is on cool-climate sites across the southern Cape, from the clay and shale of Hemel-en-Aarde to the limestone of the Overberg. These maritime vineyards, fanned by ocean breezes, give fruit of freshness and tension. Careful, low-intervention farming underpins the wines. In the cellar, whole-bunch ferments, wild yeasts and restrained oak shape wines of purity and finesse. The Chardonnays are taut and mineral, the Pinot Noirs fragrant and silky, always favouring elegance over weight. Terroir speaks clearly. From the widely loved Peter Max Pinot to the single-vineyard Clay Shales, Crystallum offers South Africa at its most refined. Cool, mineral and beautifully balanced, these are Cape wines of genuine world class.