Leeuwenkuil Family Vineyards Shiraz 2024
£12.25
The wine
A seductively perfumed Shiraz, with aromas of red berries, violets, herbal notes and white pepper, through to a fresh and energetic palate with a striking purity of fruit.
Shiraz in the Swartland comes from old bush vines on granite and shale, dry-farmed in a hot, arid region north of Cape Town that was long dismissed as bulk wine country. The style is fuller than the cool coastal regions produce, with dark fruit and spice, but the low yields keep it concentrated rather than heavy.
The producer
Leeuwenkuil Family Vineyards
View all Leeuwenkuil Family Vineyards winesLeeuwenkuil Family Vineyards is the largest single vineyard holding in the Swartland, farmed by the Dreyer family who have worked this land for generations. The name means lion's den.
The Swartland is the most interesting wine region in South Africa and one of the least glamorous: a hot, dry expanse of wheat country north of Cape Town, historically a source of bulk wine, whose old dry-farmed bush vines turned out to be its fortune. Those vines are unirrigated and untrellised, crop very little, and root deep into granite and shale in search of water. A generation of winemakers rediscovered them in the 2000s and the region has been transformed.
The estate works Chenin Blanc, Shiraz, Cinsault and Mourvedre, which is the modern Swartland palette: Rhone varieties and old Chenin rather than Bordeaux. Scale has not come at the cost of care, and the wines are consistently among the better value the Cape produces.
