Darius Carignan

Beef, Lamb, Game (deer, venison), Mushrooms

Jeremy and Emma Borg lead the small but determined Painted Wolf Wines pack. Each pack member is as unique as each African wild dog, contributing completely different talents, strengths and abilities. We strive to make a tangible and sustainable difference to the conservation of Painted Wolves (African wild dogs), other rare and endangered animals and the wild spaces in Southern Africa in which they live. We produce high quality wines with a distinctive South African feel. To that end our emphasis is on Chenin Blanc and Pinotage – the two benchmark South African grape varieties. We also work with other varieties, especially Shiraz and other Rhône grapes.

The grapes are from Welgugund farm in Wellington which is famous for its certified heritage vineyards. The site is a warm west facing vineyard planted on Tukulu soil. The vines are low bush vines, exactly how the variety would be grown on the best sites in France and Spain. Carignan loves bright sunny spots, and this is a just one of those, a perfect spot for this variety.

The wine spent nine months in barrels and tanks before bottling.

Hand harvested and fermented with natural wild yeast in 700kg open top fermenters. We added around 10% of bunches whole. Several manual punch downs are performed daily, and the wine hand bucketed into our small press.