2012 Red Reserve

In recent years Johan Reyneke, who studied environmental philosophy at the University of Stellenbosch, has expanded this property, which was originally purchased by his father in 1998. He told me he "came to organic farming organically, shifting to the use of sustainable products in 2005 and 2006," and he's now the only Demeter-certfied winery in South Africa (according to Reyneke, there are only five wineries that work biodynamically and not many more than 30 that are organic).

He realized early on that his estate's mostly decomposed granite soil with small quartz pebbles and a layer of clay underneath had a typical low pH around 5.5 "due to acid from the fynbos." Owing to the use of organic products, he has steadily increased the organic concentration in the soil, from 0.9% to 4.3%, with the result that its acidity is lower and its pH is now in the 6 to 6.5 range. All of the above would be irrelevant if the resulting wines showed the flaws or incipient oxidation of so many other organic wines, but although a couple of wines I tasted at the estate in April showed a lightly leathery character, they were aromatically complex and long on personality--some of the most stimulating wines I tasted on my recent tour.

Winemaker Rudiger Gretschel, who is also Technical Director of Wine for Vinimark, the large wine wholesaler/distribution company that is also an equal shareholder in the Reyneke brand, does a cold maceration for the red wines using dry ice. We tasted in a small tasting room that was formerly a cow shed, surrounded by the art of Mila Posthumus, Reyneke's wife.