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00:00 – INTRO

00:30 – WHAT’S SO COOL ABOUT THE VOOR-PAARDEBERG?

01:24 – WILLIE MOSTERT AND THE WELTEVREDE FARM

02:24 – WHAT IS A SKIN CONTACT GRENACHE GRIS?

03:11 – WHAT DOES THE WINE SMELL AND TASTE LIKE?

04:16 – WHAT IS A TANNIN?

05:00 – INFO ON PINOT GRIS, GRENACHE GRIS & SEMILLON GRIS

05:40 – THE SEMILLON GRIS MUTATION MYTH

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Winemaker Thinus Kruger is about as enigmatic as the cultivar of Grenache Gris. He is a one-man-band who focuses his efforts on what I would call heritage grapes; cultivars like Syrah, Grenache Noir, Cinsaut, Pinotage and Chenin blanc. These are all cultivars which have proven, over a long periods of time, that they are suited to surviving in the increasingly hot and dry South African winelands.

The Grenache Gris is one of Kruger’s wackier expressions, but a delightful bit of intellectual drinking for wine lovers looking to get grips with the rather wild leading edge of some of South Africa’s warmer climate wines.

HOWEVER, if you have yet to sign up for your Monthly HanDrinksSolo Wine Subscription then you’ll have to hunt this wine down in your own time. Until then, here are my tasting notes and some technical specs:

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👃🏼 The nose is an interesting mix of smoky flint, fresh earth, pink musk sweets, and spiced oxford marmalade.

👄 While the colour may make this note predictable, there appears to be a fairly marked bitter blood orange aperol spritz type intensity going on. And mixed in with it are some sour cherry candy notes, and spiced orange rind. And it’s with that spice towards the tail end, that some rather grippy tannins emerge, which tell the story of the three weeks that the grapes spend on their skins.

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TECHNICAL SPECS