The Field Blend

Pork, Game (deer, venison), Shellfish, Spicy food, Poultry, Lean fish, Mild and soft cheese, Fruity desserts

Stark-Condé Wines is located in the picturesque Jonkershoek Valley in Stellenbosch. It is a dramatic valley with steep changes in vineyard elevation from 150 to 600 metres making for a range of sites with distinct characteristics. At Stark-Condé they stick to traditional winemaking methods: open tank fermentation meticulous sorting of grapes hand-punchdowns basket pressing and maturation in small French oak barrels.

We have one block on the farm that is quite different from all the other blocks. Because it sits at the bottom of a steep slope as well as being very close to the river, it has a number of different geological influences: there are multiple soil types in this small block. Faced with this difficult situation, we tried to turn it into a positive and decided to plant a mix of varieties that could be picked together to make up one wine.

It was aged for 9 months in barrel and tank with regular lees stirring.

In 2023, most of the grapes were picked in multiple passes. It was then pressed and co-fermented together. The juice was barrel fermented in neutral oak - just a small percentage (+-10%)of new oak was used.