Collaboration 005: Adriaan van Zyl Tinta Barocca 2023

STYLE: Red

COUNTRY & REGION: Swartland, South Africa

VINTAGE: 2023

ABV: 11.5%

VOLUME: 75cl

THE WHAT:

This is 100% Tinta Barocca, a red grape variety that grows throughout Portugal, but that has also found its way to the Swartland in South Africa. Here, it thrives in the similarly hot and dry climate north of Cape Town. It’s a region where one is able to farm with less (or without) chemical sprays far easier, simply because the disease pressures here are significantly lower due to the arid conditions.

The fruit for this wine came from a vineyard block on the Paardeberg which belonged to a farmer by the name of Franziska, who approached Adriaan towards the end of harvest with a dilemma. She’d spent an entire growing season pouring her efforts into producing the grapes, and she now couldn’t find a buyer for them. It’s a reflection of a bigger problem plaguing wine markets currently, but it presented Adriaan with an opportunity to work and experiment with a grape that he had no prior experience with. Rather than letting all that fruit go to waste (not to mention the year’s worth of effort and resources), he decided to rescue the grapes and make a go at a wine.

THE WHO:

Adriaan van Zyl is a young producer making wine in the Swartland in South Africa. He’s got some damn good pedigree, having worked under Jasper Wickens of Swerwer wines, and more recently, the pioneers of natural wine in South Africa, Craig and Carla Hawkins of Testalonga in the Banditskloof, where he finds himself today. He is a passionate farmer, with a strong focus on organic and sustainable farming, and speaks with a deep knowledge and an infectious passion for the vines he tends to.

THE TUNES:

You always need good music with good wine. This playlist is for the lazy rainy, Sunday, where psych soul meets sweeping orchestral arrangements and beautiful brass. Pop the bottle on ice, pour a long glass, light the fire, and sink into the best part of the weekend.

LISTEN HERE