Niels Verburg founded Luddite wines in 1999 with the express intention of making world-class Shiraz. He has recently purchased a 10-hectare hillside vineyard in cool Walker Bay and we await the fruits of these grapes with keen interest.
This entirely creditable effort is made from bought in grapes from non-irrigated vineyards in the warmish regions of Malmesbury and Bottelary in Stellenbosch. Grapes were cooled overnight in a cold store, crushed and destalked the next day into open cement fermentation tanks. The wine spent 12 month in oak barrels, 30% new.
In Jancis Robinson’s words: “this wine is a triumph of flavour over alcohol - no added water here - with real backbone as well as tons (six to the hectare) of spicy fruit. More leathery than the average New World Syrah but nothing like a North Rhône wine.”
Four stars also in Decanter: “Bags of ripe, fleshy, generous fruit on the nose - juicy and fresh. Mouthwatering. Doesn`t disappoint on the palate, offering ripe blackberry, cherry fruit, a lovely weight and a lingering finish.”