The chapter index appears here the moment the episode is published.

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Most wine labels erase the farmer. This one puts him first.

Every wine in the Ex Animo Series is named after its three partners — grower, winemaker, agent — set out like a firm of attorneys. Rossouw farms it, Jurgen Gouws of Intellego makes it, Clarke sells it. And when a person changes, the name changes: earlier vintages were bottled as Wightman, Gouws & Clarke until the fruit source moved. It is a credits roll on a bottle.

The wine is the anti-Pinotage Pinotage. Bush vines planted in 1968 on the Paardeberg, farmed organically by Scholtz Rossouw, deliberately low extraction, 12.5% alcohol. Ex Animo’s own line is that it can remind you of a crunchy Dolcetto d’Alba, and one reviewer reckoned that without the label you would guess Pinot Noir.

And what it says on the front is not Old Vine Pinotage, whatever the export markets print on the back. It says DRY RED. Deliberately plain, pre-varietal-labelling Cape merchant language from the Steen-and-Dry-Red era. Nostalgic, slightly defiant, and a quiet argument about who deserves top billing.

But of course, 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. But until then, here are my tasting notes and some technical specs:

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My tasting notes go up with the video — I do not publish notes on a wine I have not sat down and recorded properly.

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100% Pinotage from bush vines planted in 1968 on the Paardeberg, Swartland — Langkloof Farm, farmed organically by Scholtz Rossouw and made by Jurgen Gouws of Intellego. Deliberately low extraction, to keep the wine crunchy rather than heavy.
Alc. 12.5% | Ex Animo does not publish tech sheets for the series, so sugar, acid, pH and sulfur are not available.