With a fascination for the science and creative expression of winemaking, Nelis Uys pours his passion into extracting the very best from our grapes.
Having honed his visionary talents alongside some of South Africa’s most acclaimed vintners, Spookfontein recently welcomed Nelis to our cellar with open arms and gusto. With a diversity of interests, from musicianship to bodyboarding and diving, his innate artistry and passion for the outdoors flows through his winemaking process.
“When it comes to winemaking, my goal is to craft wines that truly express the terroir, which means using natural fermentations and only a small percentage of new oak,” he says, while gazing lovingly at the stacks of barrels from this year’s harvest.
To elaborate further on Spookfontein’s terroir specifically, he affirms “It lends itself perfectly to freshness in pinot noir grape varietals and well-balanced structure in Bordeaux varietals.” We like the sound of that.
His winemaking process is hands-on. The vines are nurtured by hand, and the grapes are cut, sorted and destemmed by hand too.
He goes on to discuss the 2021 harvest, “The harvest this year was pretty late, which means the cabernet sauvignon was hanging on the vines for longer than usual. But that excites me, because there is loads of concentration in the wines already.”
It is all very exciting indeed. But that’s all from Nelis for now.
When our world opens up once more, we’ll make sure you get to meet him on your travels through the valley. For now, patience, while we let him quietly craft his newly pressed grapes into a crescendo of wine splendour.
And if your patience runs thin, simply order some of our previous vintages online.
Keep well, stay safe, be merry.
Cheers!
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