Description
The 2024/2025 season had a cold, wet winter, a cool spring with rainfall and sufficient soil moisture levels. This indicated a late start to the harvest season. We experienced less stress and no disease pressure in our vineyards. We had two hot days in December but the vineyards were resilient and showed no signs of heat stress. A warm ripening period ensued with greater diurnal shifts, resulting in a classic vintage that shows great promise of exceptional quality and ageability.
Vinification:
Dirty sandstone, juvenile greywacke. Batch-picked from a 1.6-hectare site. The vineyard’s changing slope, as well as stem ripeness, dictated the picking. Winemaking saw a mix of whole-bunch, whole-berry and destemmed fruit, fermented naturally with indigenous yeast in open top tanks. The must was pumped over and punched down twice a day. After fermentation had taken place, the wine was then pressed into 500-litre French oak barrels and concrete tanks, where it finished its malolactic conversion naturally. After 11 months, the wine was blended, filtered and bottled.
Tasting Notes
Greg Sherwood 95
This small 3,050 bottle Pinotage cuvee from the superb 2025 vintage has really allowed Kiara to flex her winemaking expertise with South Africa s own homegrown cultivar Pinotage. Grown, produced and bottled on the Hazendal Estate, the wine was matured for 11 months in 500 litre French oak barrels along with some concrete tanks. Youthful but already a head-turning beauty, this wine reveals a shimmering, perfumed opulence, boasting intricate notes of violets, freshly picked rose petals, a summer medley of red and black berry fruits, mulberries, bramble berries and a subtle whole bunch sapidity alongside delicate cedar wood spice nuances. In the mouth, the wine is vibrant and fresh, the tannins effortlessly silky and soft, adding just sufficient ballast and frame to the wine. The purity and precision on the palate are breathtaking, the multiple layers of fruit, spices and tangy acidity seamlessly interwoven together creating a very juicy, attractively elegant premium Pinotage. Very impressive indeed. Drink now and over the next 8 to 10 years. 95+ [Greg Sherwood MW, 06/07/2026]
