In an isolated ward in Malgas near the mouth of the Breede River – aka the middle of nowhere – lives a trailblazing wine estate set on a rocky plateau of slate and rolled stones. From the vines comes some of South Africa’s most unusual, bold and delicious wines…
Founded by winemaker and pioneer David Trafford (he and his wife Rita visited the Malgas area in 2000 and were blown away by the incredible Lemoentuin soils) Sijnn Wines had its first harvest in 2014, the same first harvest for talented young winemaker, Charla Haasbroek when she joined the team.
Characterised as an “extreme vineyard” – very poor soils (90% stone) and very low rainfall, Trafford and Haasbroek work with the land creating natural wines with minimal cellar intervention, no added yeasts, filtrates and minimal sulphur additions. Growing mostly Mediterranean varieties that work with the environment, and due to the low vigour and yields from the soils and dry climate, there is no need to trellis the vines. All vines are grown as bush vines, in a natural way as they’re allowed to adapt to their environment.
Recently released, the Malgas White 2016 is a bright, lively yellow wine with notes of lemon, honey and salty fennel. Ideal to stock away for future enjoyment (if you can hold off, that is); its moderate acidity is complemented by intense, fruit forward flavour and a lingering finish. An excellent wine for summer and winter imbibing.
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Why is pink wine pink?
(image: iStock) There must be more misconceptions around rosé wines than almost any other category of wine – and we’ll come to those in a second. But firstly – what makes a wine rosé in the first place and why is there such a wide variety of pink colours available?