Origin- South Africa

Region- Western Cape

Grapes- Pinot Noir

Type- Red

Style- Elegant & juicy Pinot noir

Alcohol- 13.5%

The wine opens with perfumed and elegant aromas of rose, redcurrants and wild herbs. On the palate, fine-grained tannins and juicy acidity are coupled with well-defined notes of nutmeg and red plum.

The grapes were fermented in small open-top fermenters with between 40-60% kept as whole bunches, to bring a natural structure and savoury character to the wines. The fermenters had gentle punch-downs until fermentation had finished. The wines spent about 30 days on skins in total to allow a gentle evolution of their structure. The wine was then matured in small used French oak barrels for nine months prior to blending and bottling to round out the tannins.

Thorne & Daughters are widely acknowledged to be a key figure in South Africa’s ‘New Wave’ wine movement. Since 2013, John and Tasha Thorne-Seccombe have been producing innovative wines sourced from selected growers across the Western Cape. In the early 2000s, winemaking took the couple around the world, and they spent a few years in the UK, where John studied viticulture at Plumpton College while working part-time at Majestic Wines and Ridgeview. Among his early achievements on an expansive CV, John’s keen eye for vineyard design led him to establish the first vineyards at Steven Spurrier’s Bride Valley in Dorset.

Back in South Africa, a happy encounter with two similarly trailblazing young winemakers, Chris Alheit and Peter-Allan Finlayson, helped lay the foundations for the first vintage of Thorne & Daughters. John and Tasha shared a small cellar with Chris and Peter-Allan until they moved to rented cellar space at Gabriëlskloof, where the wines are made today.

Thorne & Daughters mainly produce Cape white blends, from grapes sourced from 15 growers in Bot River, Stellenbosch, Voor Paardeberg, Swartland, Citrusdal, Franschhoek and Overberg.

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