Alvi’s Drift The Verreaux Pinotage 2019

Known for scoring the first try against the All Blacks on African soil back in 1928, their family patriarch, Albertus Viljoen “Oupa Alvi” van der Merwe commissioned a low-water bridge to be built across the Breede River on the family farm in 1930. Locals named this bridge “Alvi’s Drift”, the name by which it is still known today.
Home to approximately 430ha of Alvi’s Drift vineyards, the farm boasts a large commercial dairy, cheese factory, fruit orchards, livestock herds, and free-roaming game. It is also home to three generations of the Van der Merwe family. As the current custodians of the land, Alvi and Junel van der Merwe are deeply committed to environmental conservation. Through sustainable farming practices, they strive, wherever possible, to give back to the land what is taken from it.
Vineyards are situated in the cool-climate ward of Scherpenheuwel, with many different soil types – clay, limestone, shale and sandy soils – all resulting in different flavours. Fertile, temperate, and nourished year-round by the Breede River, the vineyards enjoy a special, slightly drier Mediterranean microclimate with Atlantic Ocean cooling night-time temperatures.