At Carte-du-vin we love the annual visits to our suppliers in the Cape. For the obvious reason we have been unable to fly to South Africa for over a year!
The good news is that even though their government has stopped the sale of alcohol locally on 3 separate occasions, we have been able to get shipments delivered directly from the vineyards to our store.
However life has been very hard. Kristopher the owner at Noble Hill Wine Estate has just sent us this update:-
" We're back after another lockdown here in South Africa, and sadly no sign of a strong resumption of domestic trade. We are very reliant on our loyal export customers and overseas agents for support and sales. We deeply appreciate your custom and support!
This winter we’ve been experiencing lovely cold temperatures and plenty of rain. Everything is aligned for an excellent 2022 vintage. We’ve started pruning our early-ripening blocks (Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay) and our winter cover crops of fava beans, peas, radish, and mustard are starting to grow vigorously in the work rows. Our conversion to certified organic growing means that we are using only certified organic fertilisers, and employing additional workers in the vineyards to clear weeds without using any herbicides. Our path to organic growing is certainly strained financially by the current economic climate, although we’d like more than anything to succeed with our conversion despite the current gloomy domestic economy.
I’m very happy to announce that we are releasing a new wine, Noble Hill Field Atlas. The first vintage of this wine is 2018, and is available for sale now. Field Atlas started as an idea to make wines in a more natural, light-touch way, and to bring the history and provenance of “old ways” into a modern wine. Rather than pick each grape separately and blend the wine before bottling, Field Atlas is composed of selected vineyards picked and cofermented together. Alongside our new emphasis on cofermentation for Field Atlas, we are also including a significant portion of whole clusters in each fermenting tank. The whole clusters, packed like layer cake at the bottom of the fermenting tank, undergo a partial carbonic maceration and the mature stalks give the wine more balanced and stable tannins. The result is a delicate, savoury, balanced red wine with complexity and multiple layers of flavour.
Field Atlas replaces the Noble Hill Syrah, and I am sure that your customers will find the Field Atlas more enticing, more interesting, and more complex than the wine it replaces. While the Noble Hill Syrah was a popular wine, the Field Atlas evolves this palette towards something more interesting for the future."
Life obviously has been very difficult but here they have made the most of the quieter times to make the vineyard organic and the exciting news that a completely new wine is now available is very positive indeed
We will definitely get stocks of Field Atlas when we place our next order so watch this space!
In the meantime, we are proud to be able to support the vineyards and their workers and thank all our loyal customers for buying their wines!
A quick reminder of the Noble Hill wines available here in the UK.
Bloem White Wine - £10.50
Sauvignon Blanc - £12.99
Sur Lie Chenin - £12.99
Viognier - £14.95
Estate Reserve White - £15.75
Bloem Red Wine - £9.99
Syrah - £12.99
Merlot - £14.75
Estate Reserve - £15.75