Monday's Child

Enjoy this with a gently spiced chickpeas stew with coconut milk, ginger and garlic.

McFarlane Wines was born while sharing dreams and desires one evening over dinner, sometime in 2018. A dream to have something family-owned and operated, and a deep desire to honour some of South Africa’s heritage varieties. South Africa’s vinous history is a unique one, and certain varieties have had a significant influence in shaping where the South African wine industry is today. McFarlane Wines aims to produce fine, honest wines from these varieties and share what we love about them with the world.

This special Chenin blanc comes from two old vine blocks in Stellenbosch. The smallest portion comes from the Bankrotsteen block on Karibib farm in the Polkadraai region. This block is planted on decomposed granite and experiences great influence from the False Bay ocean nearby. The biggest portion of fruit that goes into this wine comes from Geluksoord closer to the Bottelary subregion. This old block of bushvines is more North-East facing on koffie-klip and red clay. We harvest the fruit in both blocks between 21.5 Brix and 22.5 Brix. The fruit is transported to the cellar and spends overnight in the chiller before processing.

Both batches were whole bunch pressed to a stainless steel tank for light settling overnight. From here the juice was racked to big old French oak barrel where natural fermentation was allowed to start on it's own. Once the wine was dry it was stirred on it's gross lees for 6 months. The wine went through full malolactic fermentation. Just before bottling it was racked, sulphured up and protein stabilised. The wine was gently filtered before bottling.