Leeu Passant Wellington Cinsault 2021

The nose of this highly fragrant and confident heritage, old vine Cinsault, reminds one of rose petals with a hint of fresh thyme and pomegranate. The palate is silky in texture, with intricate flavours of cranberry coulis and star anise and the prominent, yet fine tannins give a beautiful structure to the wine, exemplifying the single vineyard Basson’s sense of place. As this wine ages, the texture increasingly becomes plush and in laying it down will reward with more layers of complexity. Best served at 16-18°C.

Leeu Passant - an introduction to our Vineyards and Winery

Planted on South Africa’s first selection of rootstocks in 1900, this historic parcel of dry farmed bush vine Cinsault is growing on the deep sandy alluvial soils in Wellington. This is South Africa's oldest registered red wine vineyard and the firm skins and fragrant fruit ‘sing’ to us when they are ready to pick.

Alluvial soil.

The grapes were hand-harvested during the cool morning sunrise on the 19th of February 2021 and yielded four tons per hectare which translated to twenty hectolitres per hectare.

To best preserve the natural tannins from the special heritage Cinsault site, we put 100% crushed whole-clusters in tank with minimal sulphur added. No further additions were made. Once the primary fermentation began spontaneously, the wine was pigeaged as often as deemed necessary. Cinsault can be a fast fermenter, so we kept the temperature cool to keep the primary fermentation at a pace to preserve the beautiful fruit profile. After three weeks of extended maceration, the wine was drained and pressed to barrel.

This wine was matured for 22 months in 500L French oak barrels.