Porseleinberg 2022

PorseleinbergSwartland, South Africa

Porseleinberg 2022

£73.5075cl

Why you'll love it

This wine is a true expression of the Swartland terroir, offering a rich and layered profile with a balance of fruit, spice, and earthy complexity. It's a great choice for those who enjoy full-bodied, powerful reds with depth and character....

  • Free Jersey delivery over £50
  • Click & collect in St Helier
  • CountrySouth Africa
  • RegionSwartland
  • GrapeSyrah
  • StyleBig & full
  • Vintage2022
  • Alcohol13.3%
  • Organic
  • Biodynamic
  • Minimal intervention

What it tastes like

Porseleinberg 2022 is a bold and complex red with aromas of dark fruits like blackberry and plum, along with notes of black pepper, dried herbs, and a hint of spice. The palate is full-bodied and structured, with firm tannins and flavors of ripe fruit, smoke, and earthy undertones. The finish is long and well-balanced, with a touch of minerality and a lingering warmth.

Light Full

Lovely with

  • SteakRibeye · Côte de boeuf · Steak frites
  • VenisonVenison loin · Haunch · Venison stew

Porseleinberg 2022 pairs wonderfully with grilled meats like steak or lamb, as well as roasted vegetables, hearty stews, and charcuterie. It also complements strong cheeses such as aged cheddar or Gruyère.

The grape

Syrah

Best known in Northern Rhône, Washington State

A dark, spicy red grape. Blackberry, black pepper, smoked meat and violets, with firm structure. Elegant and savoury in the Northern Rhône, in places like Hermitage and Côte-Rôtie; in Australia the same grape goes by Shiraz.

Where it's from

Swartland

South Africa

The heartland of South Africa's wine revolution. Old bush-vine Chenin Blanc, Cinsault and Syrah grown on schist and granite. The natural wine movement found its South African home here — producers like Eben Sadie and Chris Alheit have changed the global conversation about what South African wine can be.

Swartland

Meet the producer

Porseleinberg

Swartland, South Africa

Porseleinberg is a long-term project by Marc Kent of Boekenhoutskloof, on a rugged, dry schist mountain in the Swartland. Callie Louw farms it and makes the wine, a Cape Syrah closer to Cornas or Hermitage. Love Wine stocks the 2021, 2022 and 2023.

More from Porseleinberg →

The story behind it

Porseleinberg is made from grapes grown in the rugged, mountainous terrain of the Swartland region in South Africa, known for producing wines of exceptional concentration and character. The estate focuses on low-yield, organic farming practices, allowing the wine to express the unique terroir of this wild and untamed landscape.

If you like these, you'll love this: If you enjoy bold, structured wines like those from the Rhône Valley (particularly Syrah or Grenache), or full-bodied South African reds such as those from Kanonkop, you'll appreciate the complexity and intensity of Porseleinberg 2022.  

What customers say

Delivery & collection

Free delivery across Jersey on orders over £50 (£10 below that). We aim to deliver the next working day. Prefer to pick up? Choose click & collect at checkout.

Porseleinberg is home to a groundbreaking Cape Syrah that exemplifies the essence of terroir-driven, authentic wine. The extremely rugged and dry schistous mountain doesn’t invite easy viticulture, but of course extreme terroir produces extreme wine!This revolutionary long-term project by Marc Kent of Boekenhoutskloof brought in Callie Louw as the farmer and custodian of this special vineyard. At home on his John Deere tractor, Callie is also the winemaker, producing a richly tannic and yet ethereal wine that is more akin to Cornas or Hermitage.

More about this wine

CRITICS

"Produced in the teeth of what Callie Louw calls a "crazy year", with lots of winter rain and one of the hottest Januarys ever, this is the latest in a series of world-class Syrahs from the brilliant Callie Louw. Fermented and aged in foudres and 15% concrete, using the submerged cap technique that has transformed the style here, this has 95% whole bunches, fynbos and Mediterranean herb aromas, sculpted, detailed tannins and layers of plum, blackberry and raspberry and impressive freshness for a wine with a pH of 4.1. A refined wine from a brutal site.
Drink 2025-40" 99 points, Tim Atkin

Tasting Notes

A little shy at first but opening up to reveal gorgeously spicy fennel salami, dried bay leaf and rosemary notes, moving from a ferrous character to violet-infused perfume with time in glass. The fruit profile starts in the red spectrum – tangy red cherry and raspberry, with a citrussy, pink-grapefruit tang – and moves towards wild blueberries. It demonstrates a wonderful peppery tension on the mid-palate and fine-grained, mouth-coating tannins. A linear, tightly-packed Porseleinberg – lithe and slender with tonnes of energy, and with that signature stony grip on the finish.

Viticulture & Vintage

The farm enjoyed a cold, wet winter with 390.5mm of rain for the year. Budbreak was approximately 2 weeks later, starting during the first week of October. Cool, dry growing conditions kept disease pressure at bay, resulting in a smaller berry-set, with smaller bunches. Some 34mm of rain during early November was the mere difference between a difficult and a great vintage as from there on, we only received 14mm between mid-November and the end of harvest, in March. A cool summer with minimal heat waves resulted in a long, drawn-out vintage, allowing us to pick when grapes were at optimal ripeness. The harvest started on February 5th and finished on March 3rd. Grapes were hand-picked and crushed as whole bunches into concrete fermentation tanks. Minimal pump-overs were performed with the cap submerged; the ferments ran cool and dry within ten days. Maturation occurred over 12 months in 95% foudre & 5% concrete egg. Bottled June 26th, 2022 in the new facility.