About Beeslaar

A love story about pinotage. Beeslaar Wines is a small family business specializing in the production of handcrafted, high-quality pinotage wines sourced from a single vineyard in the heart of the Cape Winelands. Abrie Beeslaar's love affair with pinotage led him to establish the Beeslaar Wines brand in 2011, with the goal of producing wines that embody the many beautiful characteristics of pinotage. This grape is a cross between pinot noir and cinsault developed in South Africa, created by Professor Izak Perold of the wine faculty in Stellenboch in 1924.

The grapes of the Beeslaar pinotage come from a 2.5-hectare vineyard, located on a southeastern slope at about 200 meters above sea level, in the vicinity of the Simonsberg mountain north of Stellenbosch. The area receives about 650 mm of rain per year, mainly during winter. One of the main quality factors is the southeastern wind that blows most of the summer, which not only cools the vineyards but also limits the growth of the stocky "bushvine" vines. The predominantly shale soil in this vineyard gives the wine a unique and earthy character, while the old bush vines always result in smaller cluster and grape size. This allows a wine with immense color and flavor concentration to be produced.

The winemaking philosophy is simple: fermentation in a concrete fermentation tank, with immersion of the skins every two hours, "pigeage" in French. This ensures homogeneous temperature distribution during fermentation and prevents the extraction of undesirably aggressive phenolic compounds. This exposes the fermenting juice to more oxygen, which in turn helps to fix the color of the wine. After 3 days, the juice and skins are separated and the skins are gently pressed. The wine is then transferred to 225L oak barrels, where malolactic fermentation and aging will follow over a period of about 20 months. The Beeslaar pinotage is an expression of an incredible vineyard, showing the power and concentration of the old stocky vines.