The bright yellow ferry carrying our car trundled slowly across the mud-brown river, while we leant against the steel railings outside. The sun bounced off the water for a soporific effect, a feeling of languor dropped like a veil. From the mad race across highways and dirt roads to get here, suddenly everything slowed right down. Sijnn Wines, approximately three hours from Cape Town, is located in Malgas at the mouth of the Breede River, 40 kilometres away from any other vineyards, and about 15 from the southern oceans of Africa. Malgas has been designated as a new ward from the 2010 vintage.
We had to traverse yet another dirt road before finally seeing the unassuming cellar, just another koppie rising up from the scrub. Built with the surrounding river stones, the cellar was designed by owner and trained architect David Trafford (of De Trafford Wines in Stellenbosch). But it’s his young winemaker Charla Bosman we’re here to meet.
Armed already with hats for our vineyard walk, you get the feeling that out here in this riverine wild; Charla is closely in tune with whatever nature might throw at her. With her bobbed blonde hair tucked under a bucket hat, Charla led the way. It’s unlike any vineyard I’ve ever seen, part Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the soil appears to be only round river stones reminiscent of those famous heat-retaining galets, and part Douro, the valley cut through with the river, creating hills of varying ascents; for a combination of most African vineyard site I’ve seen. A plateau of slate juts out like Pride Rock, covered in a bushvine sprawl and aloes aplenty. The bright orange of lion’s ear blooms teamed with sap seeking sunbirds. The ceiling of the sky felt low enough to touch.
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