We focus on Food.

All our partners are carefully selected to ensure that their aims matches ours: to offer superior wines to be enjoyed with seasonal, well crafted meals - offering superior choices throughout the year.

In our wine selection there will be something to match any special culinary creation on your menu, present or future.

Our Partner Wineries focus on food.
All our partner winemakers create their wines with food in mind, not overly aromatic and long on the palate, carefully managing the balance between appearance, bouquet, texture and after taste.

In fact, some of our partner winemakers have a culinary past and a few of the vineyears have their own leading restaurants.

The system also changes one’s philosophy about fertilizing and types of nutrients. The key is that each input should encourage soil life. We try to focus on natural predators and natural fungicides, like the following:

Our wines:

www.avondalewine.co.za/wines.htm

Accolades:

Highlights:

Clinton le Sueur - Winemaker; Longridge

Our wines:

www.longridge.co.za/boutique/wines

Accolades:

www.longridge.co.za/boutique/accolades





www.nitida.co.za

Highlights:

Life in the Nitida family 

Our most recent recruits RJ and Getha have both demonstrated true Nitida tenacity in their first year with us. RJ has just returned from a harvest at Chateau Angelus, a Premier Grand Cru Clesse in ST Emilion, France. It sounds like a life-altering experience “everybody lives for wine” and “the food is just fantastic”. On the red wine side, this area specialises (like Durbanville) in Merlot led Bordeaux blends to produce elegant fruit driven styles with only a touch of cabernet. Adding to this “intravenous” learning curve, he had to cope with the consequences of recurring downpours during his first harvest. Despite a hard year, he finds himself head-over-heels in love with Durbanville and with working on a small farm where he can be involved in every aspect of the vineyard and cellar.

Getha has had just as hectic an initiation, running our farm events including a monthly “farmer’s market”, a once-off African cultural circus show, our spring sauvignon blanc festival and hosting a number of duathlons and cycling races. She has fended off the “harvest grumbles”, braved our sopping wet and treacherous dirt roads all winter and even managed to remain fairly relaxed as she sneezed her way through the high pollen counts of spring. After all of this she still declares herself to be happy.

Our wines:

Accolades:

http://www.nitida.co.za/content/view/68/55/

http://www.nitida.co.za/content/view/66/55/

http://www.nitida.co.za/content/view/45/55/
http://www.nitida.co.za/content/view/44/55/
http://www.nitida.co.za/content/view/43/55/



www.villiera.co.za

Highlights:

At Villiera the underlying philosophy is to ensure that the wines reflect the specific character of the terroir, as well as the unique characteristics of each vintage. In addition, techniques are utilised in the cellar that develop and retain the distinct varietal aromas and flavours.

Extensive replanting of classic and local varietals, coupled with the introduction of modern cellar facilities for both still wine and Mèthode Cap Classique production, has layed firm foundations for the outstanding wines produced by this dedicated family team.

Our wines:

'Down to Earth' Red Blend of Shiraz, Merlot, Gamay, Pinotage: An explosion of spice and dark berry flavours with the tannin caressing the palate. The extra dimension of integrated oak was all that was needed to complete the picture of a modern wine that illustrates the art of blending.

Merlot: The colour of the wine is a brilliant red. The aroma shows hints of cedarwood and vanilla with attractive berry fruit. On the palate the wine is rich and full with soft tannins and good acidity.

 Shiraz :  The wine displays a deep red colour with loads of ripe fruit and spice on the nose, including pepper, dark berries and vanilla. On the palate it has layers of flavour and finishes elegantly.

Monro: This wine has a deep red colour with rich red berry aromas and a good tannin structure with intense spicy undertones penetrated by hints of vanilla and tobacco.

Sauvignon Blanc: In keeping with the trend towards fruit driven wines this Sauvignon Blanc displays intense varietal character including gooseberry and fig flavours. The wine is refreshing and elegant with a good balance.

Bush Vine Sauvignon Blanc: An intensely flavoured Sauvignon Blanc with hints of greenpepper, fig and flint on the nose. The palate is fresh and lively with a long finish and good balance.

'Down to Earth' White: After careful attention to blending these components we achieved the required result – lots of ripe tropical flavours and richness from the Chenin Blanc, with fresh gooseberries and passion fruit from the Sauvignon Blanc. The Semillon contributes the more herbaceous, grassy character as well as complexity to the palate. The wine is balanced with good length, but above all it makes you reach for another glass. In the production process we limited the use of additives and avoided all animal products resulting in a wine that is suitable for vegetarians.

Gewurztraminer: Villiera's 2004 Gewürztraminer is typically aromatic with intense lychee character and floral - rose petal - undertones. It is soft and rich with a slightly off-dry finish ensuring good balance.

Inspiration: This botrytis infected noble late harvest Chenin Blanc has a brilliant golden appearance. It is intensely fragrant with hints of honey, raisins, marmalade and nuts penetrating the aroma. On the palate it is rich and sweet, but with sufficient acid to balance and it lingers forever.

Tradition Brut: This Method Cap Classique (bottle fermented sparkling wine) is a blend of red and white grapes displaying the full, balanced yeasty complexity synonymous with a wine made in this style. The wine retains its fresh racy zestiness that is a result of crisp acidity and rich fruit.

Accolades:

Villiera Wines continue to build on their reputation as one of the leading producers of bottle-fermented sparkling wine in the country. During the South African award ceremony for the 2008 Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, which was held on 4 June, the 2001 Villiera Monro Brut received a coveted silver medal.

Due to South Africa's consistent performance in this prestigious competition, the organisers decided to host a local award ceremony to personally present the awards to the Grand Gold, Gold and Silver medal winners. This accomplishment follows shortly after Villiera received one of seven South African Golds at the acclaimed International Wine Challenge 2008 for the 2007 Villiera Cellar Door Chenin Blanc. A Silver medal was also awarded to the 2004 Monro, a Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon Blend.

This week also saw the Monro Brut achieving the top score of 85 in the Cap Classique category of the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show and receiving another silver medal, while the Swiss Airline Awards pronounced it the Best Cap Classique and awarded a gold medal.

"It is really encouraging when our wines are acknowledged from an international perspective. It remains a challenge to keep our ranges current and appealing to both the local and international markets," mentions exports and sales director Cathy Brewer, who recently returned from attending the London International Wine Fair, which saw over 14000 visitors through the doors this year.

"It is definitely one of our key events as it provides a superb opportunity to meet with trade representatives, agents and leading importers and distributors from across Europe. It forms an essential part of our international marketing campaign as we get the chance to expose our wines, both from Villiera and our new French venture Domaine Grier, to a crucial audience. Our presence enables us to build relationships with new players and reconnect with existing contacts. Simultaneously, it also provides us with valuable feedback in terms of international wine consumption trends and specific varietal preferences. For example, Chenin Blanc is not an 'easy sell' in Italy, whilst they cannot get enough Gewurztraminer. The UK on the other hand is a great market for SA Chenin Blanc."

The Monro Brut has been enthusiastically received by wine critics internationally and the 2001 vintage has shown consistent character and continuous improvement on maturation. The 2001 vintage of this prestige cuvee is a 50/50 blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The Monro Brut can age for up to ten years and maturation adds an enticing complexity to the rich, creamy yeastiness and toasty flavour of this elegant bubbly.

Highlights:

The Zorgvliet Wine Estate, located in the breathtakingly beautiful Banghoek Valley outside Stellenbosch, is a working wine farm with luxury accommodation facilities and restaurants. Zorgvliet is a family concern driven by the personal commitment and passion of the vd Merwe family.

The Zorgvliet Wines Stellenbosch wine-making philosophy is driven by Stephan vd Merwe based on human intervention assisted by the extraordinary terroir of the Banghoek. As a relatively young wine farm, Stephan and his team were fortunate in that they could plant vines associated with the preferences of specific wine lovers. These include Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Viognier, Semillon, Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, Petit Verdot and Malbec. The viticulture practices enhance the quality of the grapes and with the state of the art cellar facilities, the team can produce "special wines for special people".

The estate offers a selection of fine wines. Zorgvliet currently produces wine under four distinctive labels; Zorgvliet Richelle is the flagship Bordeaux blend, the Zorgvliet range represents the estate's premier products, Silver Myn is a portfolio of unique wines including Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, Viognier, Semillon, and Pinot Noir whilst Le Pommier offers exciting "drink me now" wines.

Zorgvliet wines have received various awards over the past three years and are highly rated in the 2007 Platter wine guide. Wines have been rated 4 star or better.

Our wines:
http://www.zorgvlietwines.com/wines.php

Accolades:
http://www.zorgvlietwines.com/accolades.php