Ex Animo De Keur Grenache

It is with immense pride and excitement that we offer the first wine with the Ex Animo name: a high altitude, bushvine, dry-grown Grenache Noir. This is a project that began in 2015.

The 2.9 hectare vineyard is situated 1060 metres above sea level north of Ceres in the Koue Bokkeveld on my wife’s family’s farm, De Keur. This isolated vineyard is on a west-facing slope that can not be irrigated (otherwise there would be apples and pears planted).

The project started in 2015 when our friend Chris Alheit contacted us about planting a vineyard on this slope. He was scouting the Koue Bokkeveld for possible sites to plant to grapes.

The vines were sourced in 2016 by Rosa Kruger, but due to the drought we kept the stokkies dormant in a cool room and planted in 2017 ahead of the winter rains. We selected 4 clones of Grenache Noir, mostly the old GN70 clone, and a mix of the (then) new 513, 516 and 1064 clones