Craven - Pinot Gris - Stellenbosch, ZA - 2023

Notes from the Winery/Importer

Pinot Gris isn’t exactly an abundant grape planted in Stellenbosch, but it is something we have a lot of fun working with. Although a lot of the wine drinking world think and assume it is a ‘white grape’, it is in fact a lovely coppery/dark rose skinned grape. With this being the case, we just can’t waste that colour and delicious flavour trapped in the skins, so we ferment this wine like a red. The 2023 vintage saw a significant change in vinification. This year it was fermented and aged 100% in concrete tanks. The grapes were destemmed into the concrete tanks and given a light pump over once a day for gentle extraction of the lovely rose-coloured hue and chalky tannin. 2023 had such nice, developed tannins that we found only 6 days on skins was sufficient to give ample texture to the wine. The wine was then drained and pressed into the concrete tanks for a further 6 months of elevage. Ingredients: Grapes, SO2. 100% Pinot Gris W.O Stellenbosch Vineyard: Newlands Planting Year: 2007 Grown by: Deon Joubert Soil: “Koffeeklip” Alcohol: 12.01 % pH: 3.72 Total Acidity: 4.9 g/L

Notes on the Producer

Craven Wines is a winemaking collaboration between husband-and-wife team Mick and Jeanine Craven. Mick is an Aussie and Jeanine is South African; they met in California dragging hoses in Sonoma for harvest in 2007. After both having taken to the textbooks at their respective universities, they decided to hit the road, see lots of things, work in lots of places and try and learn as much as possible from this massive wine world. After traveling across the world together for four years and learning about wines in Australia, Europe, the States and South America, the couple returned to South Africa in late 2011. They feel Stellenbosch has such an amazing array of sites and terroir, and that it is perfect for what they want to do, which is making site-specific, honest wines.