Thorne and Daughters Wines was started in 2012 by John and Tasha Seccombe to produce authentic wines in the beautiful Western Cape where we have made our home. It has been a long journey that has taken us around the world and brought us back here to where we first met. We love the Cape, and we want to taste this air and this sunshine in our wines. To produce our wines we’ve drawn on the great history of wine growing here in South Africa, putting together old vineyard parcels with new grape varieties, and making wines with old school simplicity and a modern ‘edge’. Our approach to wine making is simple, honest and gentle, and we are looking to make wines that tell a story of the Cape of Good Hope.
One of the key heritage varietals in South Africa is Semillon, a grape variety that the modern wine industry was practically built on, but which now finds itself as a small presence in the viticultural landscape here. There are still a number of incredible, old Semillon vineyards in existence and we have been fortunate enough to work with some of them.
Paper Kite is our expression of old vine South African Semillon, and it is sourced from a 58 year-old vineyard in Swartland. These old clones of Semillon (including a tiny amount of Semillon gris dotted about the vineyards) deliver an expression of Semillon that is very much at odds with the modern, aromatic clones. The wines they produce are hauntingly beautiful and difficult to define.