The sound of sweet birdsong in the background of Episode 277 of The Drinking Hour podcast is of note: host David Kermode is signing in from Stellenbosch’s Vergelegen, a verdant 2,200-hectare estate that’s home to plant species increasingly rare to South Africa and, more pertinently, to vines cultivated for Bordeaux blends of some serious stature.
Vergelegen’s winemaker Luke O’Cuinneagain talks Kermode through the evolution of the historic estate’s wines and the mark that nature makes on these: from the cooling effect of ‘brutal’ winds to the maritime influence that gives a salinity to the range of wines. O’Cuinneagain is particularly enthusiastic about the subjects of texture and tension in wine, as the pair discuss the ‘gravelly’, ‘slately’ tannins that help form part of Vergelegen’s signature style.
Discover more episodes of The Drinking Hour with David Kermode here.
