We are delighted to offer the latest releases from Alheit Vineyards. Alheit Vineyards is a family business started in 2010 by husband and wife team Chris and Suzaan Alheit.
Their goals are simple. They strive to make wines with a clear sense of Cape identity, celebrating the Cape’s vinous heritage, protecting and nurturing bush vines from old dry-farmed vineyards. They believe that quality and beauty in wine come from the vineyard alone. To that end, they practice simple and careful winemaking: no yeasts, no enzymes, no acidification, no sulphur before fermentation, no new barrels, no fining etc. In essence, no manipulation.
The allocations of these exceptional wines are tiny. Therefore, we are offering a mixed case that contains the following.
3 x Cartology 2024
3 x Hereafter Here 2024
1 x Monument Sémillon 2024
1 x Fire By Night 2024
1 x Magnetic North 2024
1 x Hemelrand Vine Garden 2024
1 x Nautical Dawn 2024
1 x Huilkrans 2024
Winemakers Notes
Cartology
Cartology is a vinous exploration of Cape heritage. It’s intended to be a picture of the Cape seen through the lens of her old vineyards in a given vintage. The cuveé is composed of rare and extraordinary parcels of mature dryland bushvines, of heritage grapes, namely Chenin Blanc and Semilllon. These grapes have been planted in the Cape for centuries. Cartology has become our staple offering. It serves as a poster child for our project, and also seems to have become a flag bearer for Cape heritage wine in general.
Hereafter Here
Hereafter Here is a young vineyard wine. The great thing about planting young vines is that you can choose the site and the material purely for the sake of quality wine. Some of our favourite growers have already planted new vines, as will we on our own farm in the coming years. I find the idea of planting for the future very exciting! Our kids will have nice mature vines to work with. This is also a great space for us to nurture younger parcels that are very good but still too young for Cartology.
Nautical Dawn
Nautical Dawn is a single origin Chenin blanc wine. Since its maiden vintage in 2017 it has helped to showcase the raw talent of the False Bay coast of Stellenbosch - a vital part of the Cape Chenin story. The wine has quite an extreme nature and a strong personality. Even with early picking, this vineyard delivers huge flavour with intense concentration and ripping natural acid.
Fire by Night
Fire by Night is a single origin Chenin Blanc wine grown on our own Paardeberg property called Nuwedam. The Paardeberg holds a mythical place in our hearts. It is both ground zero for the quality revolution that’s sweeping the Cape, and home base for some of our country’s wine heroes. Previously under-valued, the Paardeberg sports an embarrassment of riches: pure decomposed granite soil and an abundance of dry-farmed old bushvines.
Huilkrans
Huilkrans is a single origin Chenin Blanc wine. It has gained a very strong following amongst Chenin lovers and is considered by critics to be approximately equal to Magnetic North in quality. If Magnetic North is the tenor voice of Skurfberg, then Huilkrans must be the deeper baritone. It works on a lower, richer frequency, but still unmistakably from this great appellation.
Magnetic North
Magnetic North is a single origin Chenin Blanc wine. Since its maiden vintage in 2013, this wine has become a perennial star in our line-up. Every vintage it manages to combine power and finesse in a way very few other Chenin vineyards from anywhere (not just the Cape) are able to do.
Monument Sémillon
Monument Sémillon is a single vineyard wine from a remarkable old vineyard in Franschhoek. This wine represents a bygone agricultural era in the Cape. It showcases great old Cape DNA in a way that few other wines can.
Hemelrand Vine Garden
Hemelrand Vine Garden is a unique vineyard that produces a unique wine. The idea is to bottle the wine just as the vineyard produces it, effectively creating a white field blend that changes every year depending on the vintage conditions. This way we have one place expressed by a few different grapes, changing as the season dictates. The wine is always remarkable and continues to gain in stature as the vines mature.
