The Indwe Estate
At the southern-most tip of Africa, where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet, one finds the ‘Cape of Storms’, or more commonly, Cape Agulhas. On this peninsula lies the Elim ward and Overberg region, where we source the grapes for Indwe Sauvignon Blanc. Indwe is the Xhosa name for the Blue Crane, South Africa’s national bird. It is an endangered species and endemic to South Africa, particularly the Overberg region. The Blue Crane is very special to the amaXhosa and amaZulu, often associated with warriors and royalty.
Owner and Winemaker is Trizanne Barnard. During her productive vinous career, she has seized every possible opportunity to broaden her knowledge and experience, pressing them for every drop of goodness they offered, enriching her life, her work and her wine. With a B.Sc Agric under her belt she stepped into the real world of wine, completing harvests in Western Australia, Alsace, Bordeaux, Rhone and Douro Valley.
Back on home soil, after a year at Klein Constantia she was challenged with setting up a winery in the Helderberg. After four successful years,she decided it was time to venture on my own, creating her own project.
The Indwe Estate
At the southern-most tip of Africa, where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet, one finds the ‘Cape of Storms’, or more commonly, Cape Agulhas. On this peninsula lies the Elim ward and Overberg region, where we source the grapes for Indwe Sauvignon Blanc. Indwe is the Xhosa name for the Blue Crane, South Africa’s national bird. It is an endangered species and endemic to South Africa, particularly the Overberg region. The Blue Crane is very special to the amaXhosa and amaZulu, often associated with warriors and royalty.
Owner and Winemaker is Trizanne Barnard. During her productive vinous career, she has seized every possible opportunity to broaden her knowledge and experience, pressing them for every drop of goodness they offered, enriching her life, her work and her wine. With a B.Sc Agric under her belt she stepped into the real world of wine, completing harvests in Western Australia, Alsace, Bordeaux, Rhone and Douro Valley.
Back on home soil, after a year at Klein Constantia she was challenged with setting up a winery in the Helderberg. After four successful years,she decided it was time to venture on my own, creating her own project.
The Vineyards
The historic mission settlement of Elim on the Agulhas Plain comprises 6 500 hectares of land.  Half of this land is under agriculture and for the past one hundred years has been cultivated and the remaining + 3 000 hectares of Elim ferricrete fynbos is managed by the Moravian Church and the community at the Elim mission station.
Elim was established in 1824 by Moravian missionaries and sacramental wine was required for church services, and the first vineyard planting in this region subsequently occurred over 100 years ago however viticulture didn’t really establish until 1997 when it resumed again.
First Vineyard plantings: 1996 – Lands End. After Lands End, The Berrio planted the next vineyards in 1997.
Producers in Elim:
Total hectares of vineyards 129.16 Ha = 319.161 Acres
White grape varietals found on Elim: approximately 80% Sauvignon Blanc, 15% Semillon and the rest is small parcels of Viognier, Nouvelle.
Indwe Pinotage Coastal Region is made from 100 percent Pinotage.
Pinotage is a true South African grape variety, Our signature grape smilar to the Blue Crane being our national bird. Indwe Pinotage grapes are meticulously sourced from our grape producers along the Coastal region of the Western Cape ensuring complexity, depth and purity of fruit. The wine is layered with sweet cherry notes, and subtle hints of mocha and vanilla flavors.
Weingut Prager Stockkultur Achleiten Gruner Veltliner Smaragd is made from 100 percent Gruner Veltliner.
Franz Prager, co-founder of the Vinea Wachau, had already earned a reputation for his wines when Toni Bodenstein married into the family. Bodenstein’s passion for biodiversity and old terraces, coupled with brilliant winemaking, places Prager in the highest echelon of Austrian producers.
Smaragd is a designation of ripeness for dry wines used exclusively by members of the Vinea Wachau. The wines must have minimum alcohol of 12.5%. The grapes are hand-harvested, typically in October and November, and are sent directly to press where they spontaneously ferment in stainless-steel tanks.
Stockkultur is a 0.3-hectare plot at the top of Achleiten and was purchased by Toni Bodenstein in 2005. The name refers to the old style of training each vine to a single stake; the traditional method of vine cultivation in the Wachau before the 1950s. The vines planted in 1938 are among the oldest in the Wachau.
Tasting Notes:
Prager’s stylistic signature is that of aromatic complexity coupled with power and tension. High-density planting and long hang times ensure ripe fruit flavors and concentration, yet allowing leaves to shade the fruit lend vibrant aromatics of grasses, herbs, and wildflowers. Minerality is a constant feature of any Prager wine.
Food Pairing:
With minimum alcohol of 12.5%, Grüner Veltliner Smaragd is a concentrated and full-bodied dry white wine. Its intensity of flavor and ripeness of fruit make it ideal with high-integrity ingredients such as seared white fish or sautéed spring vegetables. Grüner Veltliner is a classic accompaniment to Wiener Schnitzel.
Review:
From vines planted in 1937 and picked as the first of the Smaragd wines, the 2020 Ried Achleiten Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Stockkultur (planted with 15,000 vines per hectare) opens with a spectacular deep and complex but refined, fresh and flinty bouquet with intense, ripe pear and biscuit aromas. On the palate, this is a dense and lush yet pure, elegant and complex, wide and powerful but also mineral Achleiten with a long, finely tannic and still sweet finish (due to more than 30 grams per liter of dry extract). Tasted at the domaine in June 2021.
At Prager, I could not determine that 2020 would be inferior to the 2019 vintage; on the contrary, the 2020 Smaragd wines fascinated me enormously in their clear, cool, terroir-tinged way. A 38% loss had occurred mainly because of the hail on August 22, although predominantly in the Federspiel or Riesling vineyards. There was no damage in the top vineyards such as Ried Klaus, Achleiten or Zwerithaler. "Interestingly, the vines are in agony for about two weeks after the hail. There was no more growth, no development of ripeness and sugar," reports Toni Bondenstein. The Veltliner then recovered earlier, while even picking a Riesling Federspiel in October was still a struggle. "Why Riesling reacted more intensively to the hail, I don't know myself either," says Bodenstein. Whole clusters were pressed to preserve acidity and to compensate for the lower extract, and compared to 2019, the 2020s were left on their lees longer. In June, however, the 20s in particular showed outstanding early shape.
-Wine Advocate 96 Points
Patz & Hall Sonoma Coast Chardonnay is made from 100 percent Chardonnay.
The 2019 offering is a collection of fifteen single-vineyard quality sites that could all be bottled as single source bottlings; six blocks of Dutton Ranch, three from Sanchietti Vineyard, Gap’s Crown Vineyard, Zio Tony Ranch, three of Parmelee-Hill, and Durell Vineyard. The wine has inviting aromas of spicy pear, marzipan, lemon drop candy, peach pie and pineapple. As a cool-climate Chardonnay, there’s a refreshing acidity on the finish giving the wine great poise, balance and energy.
Review:
Rich, powerful and well-structured, with lemon drop accents to the dried apple and pear tart flavors that show plenty of toasty accents. The creamy finish is boosted by rich acidity. Drink now.
- Wine Spectator 93 Points