A FAMILY OF WINE Cape Wine Crafters

A family ofwine

Cape Wine Crafters, a legacy of wines for all walks of life. BY THEA BECKMAN

The last time I went to Weltevrede Estate in the rolling winelands of Robertson, I was treated to a candlelit cellar tasting of an award-winning repertoire of wines, accompanied by stories of the estate’s colourful cast of historical characters. Needless to say, I have only the fondest memories of this centuries-old wine estate, but since that day, the expansion of the farm has unfurled a new bloom. In 2021, Cape Wine Crafters – a house of brands – was launched that has taken the baton of Weltevrede’s familiar favourites like the Vanilla Chardonnay and Cherrychoc

Merlot. Today, they proudly continue the legacy with the Simplicity Collection, featuring six delicious and accessible wines made from grapes grown in the soils of Weltevrede.

THE SIMPLICITY COLLECTION: MEET THE FAMILY

You need only casually peruse any supermarket wine section or restaurant menu to likely come across Weltevrede Vanilla Chardonnay, now Cape Wine Crafters Vanilla Chardonnay. With a tropical fruit basket on the nose and rich flavour notes of butterscotch, crème brûlée, and vanilla, this go-to white wine is a firm favourite of wooded Chardonnay lovers. If, however, it’s a crisp, dry wine you’re after, try the Lemon Zest Unwooded Chardonnay, which boasts prominent notes of grapefruit, passion fruit, pineapple, lime, and lemon peel. Then there’s the Turkish Delight Rosé with litchi, rose petals and candyfloss on the nose and strawberries and Turkish Delight on the palate.

Are you starting to see the pattern here? Each wine’s name pays homage to its most prominent aroma or flavour note, for once making the task of buying the perfect wine for the perfect meal, occasion or craving ridiculously easy. But we’re not done with the Simplicity Collection yet. On the red end of the spectrum, Cape Wine Crafters serves up the beloved Cherrychoc Merlot, which delivers a heady blend of ripe cherries, espresso and intense dark chocolate; the juicy BlueBerry Cabernet Sauvignon (intense cherries, blueberries and espresso on the nose; plums, pomegranate, berries and dark chocolate on the palate), and the smooth and sultry Cigarbox Shiraz (plum, violets, cloves and tobacco on the nose; cherries, dark chocolate and espresso on the palate).

All of these wines – as well as the others in the Cape Wine Crafters’ portfolio – are made from grapes sun-ripened in the sweeping vineyards alongside the Breede River, the main artery that gifts life to the Robertson Wine Valley.

Each wine’s name pays homage to its most prominent aroma or flavour note, for once making the task of buying the perfect wine for the perfect meal, occasion or craving ridiculously easy.

THE ROBERTSON WINE VALLEY

Sandwiched between the Langeberg to the north and the Riviersonderend Mountains to the south, the Robertson Wine Valley embraces a constellation of more than 61 wine estates dotted in and around the quaint towns of Ashton, Bonnievale, McGregor and Robertson. Here, the drainage, soils and climate deliver a trifecta of perfect growing conditions for grapes nurtured by talented winemakers into the beautiful wines the region is known for.

But it’s for more than just the wine that people readily make the two-hour drive from Cape Town; it’s for the hearty fare, country hospitality, salt-of-the-earth people, and one-of-a-kind wine experiences, like Weltevrede’s underground cellar tastings and candlelit stories. And it’s this authenticity and spirit of fun that Cape Wine Crafters embraces, not only with the Simplicity Collection, but with their underlying philosophy, which is to make wine accessible, relatable and sociable so that we may all share in the joy of wine, whoever we are and whatever path we’ve walked to come here.