Scions of Sinai, Gramadoelas, Single vineyard Grenache Blanc, Stellenbosch, South Africa

Bernhard Bredell is 7th gen winemaker in the lower Helderberg region and when thinking of a name he decided a play on words was needed! Scion refers to the top life bearing parts of a plant/vine or can also mean ‘the descendant of’. Sinai refers to ‘Sinai Hill’ – a granite hill in the region of lower Helderberg, to the south of Stellenbosch.

Bernhard is as low intervention as can be, he wants the wine to be a true expression of itself and so there is no manipulation, he says - “I’m not trying to be weird or funky – for me what’s most important is to have that line between vineyard and glass as uncompromised as possible,”

Gramadoelas is a remote Grenache Blanc single vineyard far to the east of the Western Cape in Klein Karoo. At 450 mars and shielded from the Indian Ocean conditions are dry and arid. 

Grapes are handpicked in the cool mornings to retain freshness. All grapes are destemmed into a tank and left on the skins at a very low temperature for 2 nights before being pressed and put into 225 ltr French oak barrels to spontaneously ferment and is left in the barrels on the lees for 9 months. Wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered.