Wildekrans: World-class Wines Made in a Sustainable Way
A little way down the Cape Town coastline is a winery that takes a very gentle approach to making wine. Cape Homemakers Expo exhibitor, Wildekrans Wine Estate is set on a vast expanse of Overberg rolling hills. The secret of its famous wine lies in the unique composition of the soil and its closeness to the sea. This temperate and tranquil setting helps the master winemakers at Wildekrans produce world-class wine.
A Prominent Space
Wildekrans today, fills a prominent space in this wonderful, fertile landscape discovered hundreds of years ago by the early settlers of the Cape, who were seeking agricultural produce for its inhabitants and passing ships.
Viticulturist Braam Gericke take a gentle approach toward the vines and the wines. His philosophy is simple: to treat everything as your own and look after it in the same way. Consequently, infinite care is taken to match varietals to suitable soil types. The vines are thereafter nurtured to produce low yielding crops of pronounced structure and fruit intensity. All of this goes toward creating wines with a sense of origin and a strong core of elegance and integrity.
Love for the Environment
Wildekrans farm with love and care for their staff and the environment. Accreditations include WIETA promoting fair labour practice, LEAF promoting environmentally friendly farming, and BWI. Their commitment to their staff is the right to a healthy and safe working environment, the right to freedom of association without any form of discrimination, and the right to a living wage above the legal minimum, as prescribed by law.
All the employees have a vested interest in the business, as one of the various initiatives include farm ownership programmes. Other initiatives include life skill training programmes for staff, créche for children of staff. They limit the use of chemical pesticides and instead use ducks trained to eat slugs and snails. While this may all sound like a marketing story, the results are impressive. The estate delivers award-winning wine every year.
Award-Winning
Two notable examples of their acclaimed produce are the Pinotage Barrel Select Reserve 2014, and the Shiraz Barrel Select Reserve 2014 which respectively won the Decanter 2016 Platinum & Regional Trophy for Top Single Varietal Red and the Decanter 2016 Gold award.
Wine tasting occurs in the original cellar building built in 1936, which has been returned to its former glory. Wine tasting is presented by professional vintners with a passion for all things wine.
If the wines are not enough, the incredible view of Bot River Valley and the sublime boutique lodge make this one of the must-go-to wineries around Cape Town.
Visit the Wildekrans Wine Estate website: www.wildekrans.com
