Painted Wolf Darius Carignan 2023

Captivating aroma of red raspberries, smoky wood and black pepper which follows onto the palate, which is smooth, coating and velvety with tannins that harmonise with the wine’s crisp acidity. The wine finishes with a twang of thyme and tapenade.

The grapes are from Welgugund farm in Wellington which is famous for its certified heritage vineyards. The site is a warm west facing vineyard planted on Tukulu soil. The vines are low bush vines, exactly how the variety would be grown on the best sites in France and Spain. Carignan loves bright sunny spots, and this is a just one of those, a perfect spot for this variety

Hand harvested and fermented with natural wild yeast in 700kg open top fermenters. We added around 10% of bunches whole. Several manual punch downs are performed daily, and the wine hand bucketed into our small press. The wine spent nine months in barrels and tanks before bottling.

This wine is named for Darius, a very special African wild dog who led the Apoka pack in Botswana for 8 years. Together with his alpha female, Seronera, he brought 72 pups into the world.

Painted Wolf Wines supports the conservation of the highly endangered painted wolf (African Wild dog) and the protection of the diminishing wild spaces of Africa, through its donations to the EWT – www.ewt.org.za and Tusk https://tusk.org/