Empire of Dirt Cabernet Franc | Mother Rock

A lover of Loire Valley Cabernet Franc, Johan set out to create an elegant, perfumed rendition of the grape, unlike the high-alcohol Bordeaux blends typically found in South Africa. He’s done just that, with heaps of crunchy red fruit, subtle herbal undertones, and ripe tannins tying it all together. Very minimal extraction is carried out in the winery. As he recently told us: “We have the sun in the vineyards doing all that hard work for us, giving us grapes that are perfectly ripe, which then don’t need any manipulation during fermentation.” From a regeneratively farmed vineyard just two kilometres from the Atlantic coast, this is a wine that’s already at ease with itself, with a silky structure and none of the greenness sometimes found in cooler climates.