Sadie Family Treinspoor 2020 / 2021 / 2022
Type: Red
Country: South Africa
Region: Swartland
Grape Variety: 100% Tinta Barroca
Viticulture: Biodynamic | Certified Organic
Climate: Warm and dry summers, cool and damp winters
Terroir: Treinspoor comes from a vineyard planted in 1974 on decomposed granite and table mountain sandstone, on the western side of Malmesbury
Winemaking: The grapes are fermented with 50% whole clusters and 50% being destemmed and the fermentation is left for about 25 – 30 days prior to being pressed in an old basket press. Only bucket-overs are done in the fermentation for it is very easy to over-extract Tinta Barocca since the grapes hold an abundance of tannins. After pressing the wine is transferred into 28-year-old conical wooden casks that do not impart any wooden flavours. The age and the saturation of the wooden staves also make for a very slow reaction between the wine and oxygen. After 11 months on the lees the wine is racked to another concrete tank for an additional month to settle clean and 2 weeks prior to bottling we add 65mg/Litre of sulphur and bottle the wine from the fine lees
Color: Ruby
Nose: Spicy herbal aromatics and dark purple plum
Palate: The spicy, mineral, graphite and earthy characteristics flowing into a river of tannins and textures
About the Winery:
Eben Sadie started his winemaking career working for Charles Back’s Spice Route-labelled wines before breaking out on his own in 1999. Since the first release of Columella with the 2000 vintage, he has acquired a reputation as the most innovative and inspired winemaker in South Africa.
His goal is to produce an expression of a region or specific site. This is the philosophy that drives the production of his Signature Series wines – Columella and Palladius. Columella (predominantly Syrah with a little Mourvèdre, Grenache, Carignan and Cinsault) is one of South Africa’s very best wines, if not the best, named after one of the wine trade’s earliest scribes. It is a blend of old-vine fruit from eight Swartland vineyards, spending 24 months in oak (with only a small proportion that is new) and is racked every six months. Eben’s white wine, Palladius, is arguably more impressive still; it is a delicious blend of 11 varieties from 17 different vineyard sites, with old, bush-vine Chenin Blanc playing the leading role.
The Signature Series was joined by the Old Vine Series (Die Ouwingerdreeks in Africaans) with its first commercial release in 2010. This range of wines is the fruition of a project very close to Eben’s heart. He worked with renowned viticulturist, Rosa Kruger, to seek out, revitalise, and in some cases, save old vineyards throughout the Cape. These highly sought-after wines are produced in very limited volumes and offer an incredible vinous insight into South Africa’s grape growing and winemaking history. These, and the Signature Series, are incredible wines from a winemaker at the top of his game.
It is hardly surprising that Sadie Family Wines has been awarded the title of the Platter Guide’s Winery of the Year twice (in 2010 and 2015).
