Wine Club Autumn Newsletter 2021

We are excited to announce the launch of our brand new De Krans Premium Rosé Moscato Perlé 2020. This wine truly is the best of both worlds when it comes to showcasing and enjoying both Rosé and Moscato styles. Similar to the White and Red Moscato, the De Krans Premium Rosé Moscato Perlé 2020 is a natural sweet wine with a slight fizz and a low alcohol content of 8%. The Rosé Moscato is made using Hanepoot, Muscadel and a splash of Pinotage, giving the wine that lovely light, rose petal colour. The wine has muscat and exotic spice aromas with hints of strawberries and candy floss, with tropical fruits and strawberries on the palate and is finished off with a crisp acidity. The wine is best served chilled, and most importantly – be sure to have loads of fun when drinking it! This wine forms part of the De Krans Premium Moscato Range also consisting of the Premium White Moscato Perlé, Premium Red Moscato Perlé, and the Muscat Nectar Alcohol- Free Sparkling, which was released in March last year.

Soak up the last of the warm, sunny days with the De Krans Free Run Chenin Blanc. This unwooded chenin, with its delightful balance between fruit and fresh acidity, really is a chenin for everyone’s taste. The use of free run juice (that first batch of juice before the grapes are pressed) results in a wonderful, complex fruit character of tropical fruit including passion fruit, banana and guava. The wine pairs well with grilled snoek or chicken, pastas and salads. The Free Run Chenin Blanc forms part of the De Krans Classic Varietal Range, which also includes the Wild Ferment Chardonnay, Pinotage Rosé and Basket Press Cabernet Sauvignon.

Following the success of the Premium White Moscato Perlé, the Premium Red Moscato Perlé was first produced in 2017. Similar to the White Moscato, this is a natural sweet wine with a slight fizz, but with 15% of Pinotage grapes added, resulting in a lovely red colour. The Pinotage also changes the flavour profile, giving it lovely red fruit flavours of mainly strawberries, while still maintaining the lovely muscat, litchi, honey and exotic spice flavours from the Muscadel and Hanepoot grapes. This wine is best served chilled and is a great alternative as a bubbly (the low alcohol of 8.5% is a bonus), or paired with cheese and charcuterie platters, summer salads, or spicy food.

The A Twist of Fate, similar to a Pinot Noir in style, is the epitome of the changing of the seasons with its light cherry colour. The wine has a wonderful earthiness, subtle oak, red fruit and spicy flavours, with red berries, smooth tannins and a balanced acidity on the palate. Although this wine has unique and rich flavours, it is really the uniqueness of the story behind it that does the talking. Tinta Barocca, the first Portuguese grape to find its way to the Klein Karoo in 1973, was accidentally planted, believing it to be Shiraz. The same happened with the Tinta Amarela, which was planted in 2004, thinking it to be Tinta Roriz. These vines, that have found their way to Calitzdorp due to a simple twist of fate, have for years been vital to the success story of Calitzdorp port and dry table wines. The Twist of Fate is the perfect wine to enjoy with a truly South African braai. Don’t be afraid to pop the wine in the fridge to give it a nice chill.

De Krans planted Touriga Nacional vineyards in 1994 and was the first in South Africa to produce Touriga Nacional as a single varietal dry red wine in 2000. Ever since those early days De Krans has continued to produce award winning vintages and has done a lot of work to highlight and celebrate a variety of interesting and unique Portuguese cultivars. The Touriga Nacional 2018 spent 12 months in French oak barrels and is a well-balanced wine with complex flavours of black currents, dried prunes, cherry cigar and violets, with a lingering aftertaste of dark chocolate and a smooth tannin. This wine pairs extremely well with red meat dishes such as venison, ostrich steak, roasted lamb shank and ostrich carpaccio. This is the perfect wine for all the foodies and meat lovers out there to experiment with different pairing combinations.

Touriga Nacional is also a vital building block in producing quality port- style wines and not only contributes lovely fruit flavours but also provide a good tannin structure, allowing port-style wines to mature for many years.