Cellar and Wines
What we do
Delphin Wines is a boutique cellar with a capacity to process around 10 tons of grapes per season. We use open tanks for the red wine alcoholic fermentation with manual punch downs coupled with cold maceration before yeast inoculation and an extended maceration after fermentation to extract more flavours and colour from the skins.
After pressing Malolactic fermentation is done either in steel tanks or in oak barrels. All red wines are aged in oak barrels for 10 to 12 months . The white wines undergo fermentation either in steel tanks or in barrels and all our Chardonnays are aged in old oak barrels to produce a lightly oaked bouquet.
The Greyton terroir is more suited to cultivate grapes such as Shiraz, Chardonnay, Viognier and Tempranillo and this suits the wine style that we love with facets such as barrel fermentation and aging in oak.
The vineyards on Heuningkloof was established around 10 years ago but neglected over time. This initially forced us to buy in grapes from Elgin and Hemel-en-Aarde valley while the vines on Heuningkloof are rehabilitated. The first harvest, 2019, was a tough season for grapes with initial drought and then late rains resulting in the Shiraz struggling to ripen and it changed the planned Shiraz harvest into a Shiraz/Mourvedre/Grenache harvest and forcing a co-fermentation. A bold move for the rookie winemaker being the first red cultivar at Delphin but turned out to be a huge success.
The 2019 Chardonnay was aged for 8 months in French oak barrels and was released for sale in April 2020. The SMG was aged in French Oak barrels for 12 months and was bottled in May 2020. The first grapes from our own vineyard was the 2020 Shiraz that was harvested at full ripeness that produced a lovely full bodied spicy Shiraz. The Chardonnay grapes for 2020 came from Elgin and Hemel-en-Aarde Valley and was barrel fermented that produced a full bodied Chardonnay with a lovely ripe citrus bouquet.
The results of our care and management of the Shiraz vines on Heuningkloof was a bumper yield of great quality grapes in 2021 that was harvested at full ripeness. This produced a full bodied bold Shiraz with a spicy bouquet of nutmeg, black pepper and ripe plums. We also produced our first Sauvignon Blanc in 2021 that is still sitting on the lees but it has a lovely passion fruit and guava aroma with crisp zesty lemon taste. This wine will be released around August 2021.
All our wines are handcrafted, from handpicking and sorting of the grapes right through to the final bottling and labelling, all done by hand in our cellar on Heuningkloof.
Our future plans are to use more of our own Heuningkloof grapes but to also make wine from other cultivars such as a Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, Grenache, Tempranillo and Pinotage. We also plan to build a tasting room on the northern side of the cellar as it has this magnificent view of the Riviersonderend Mountains.
