Craven Wines
Stellenbosch, South Africa
“"Craven is one of the most interesting wine projects in South Africa. It's part of the rediscovery of the best vineyard sites in Stellenbosch that's currently underway, with a whole group of young guns looking to find the gems and make interesting wines from them.
The folk involved, Mick and Jeanine Craven met in 2007 while working a harvest as cellar hands in Sonoma. The Aussie (Mick) and Saffa (Jeanine) hit it off right away, kept in touch while finishing off their enological studies, fell in love and took to the road to work, taste and learn as much as they could about what they shared a passion for: site-specific, honest wines.
They decided to return to Jeanine's family base in Stellenbosch in 2011 to put their travels and experience into action and plant roots as Craven Wines. 2014 was their first commercial vintage. They quickly established themselves as Stellenbosch revolutionaries & became key members of the Zoo Biscuits Collective...
To do less, you need to know more. Their low-interventionist winemaking is as much hands-off, as it is tuned on. The duo know their vineyards intricately, and craft only single-vineyard wines, picked early and respectfully to best reflect site and vintage. They use no cultured yeasts, enzymes or fining agents, allow the wines to stabilize naturally, and utilize only older oak and larger format barrels whenever possible. A minimal amount of SO2 'which is our friend' is the only addition, and the wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered." - Dr. Jamie Goode, Wine Anorak, The World of Fine Wine, Decanter, and Sommelier Journal.
Most of the vineyards (Bluegum Grove, Karibib, Newlands) they source from are in the Polkadraai Hills ward of Stellenbosch. The granite soils here allow the Cravens to show the precision of the fruit they work with. There is a laser-like focus on the palate of these wines – this includes the skin-contact Pinot Gris which has gained a cult following around the world.
Jeanine’s family’s farm was in Faure in southern Stellenbosch. This area is where they source the fruit for their Cinsaut. As with Polkadraai, the Faure area has granite soils, but is a cooler microclimate thanks in part to the proximity to False Bay to the south and the cool mountain air sinking off the nearby Helderberg.
"We chose South Africa, as we think there is a lot of potential here to make amazing wines. We live in Stellenbosch and our hearts are here in this town, which is why we only make wines from the Stellenbosch region as we want to be within a heartbeat of the vines. We want to make wines which are interesting, both stylistically and by varietal, but also wines which have a sense of place and express where they come from. We have isolated particular vineyard sites, for their unique soils and micro-climates, where we work with the growers to ensure that we get the best results from the particular sites. All our wines will come from single vineyards around Stellenbosch." - Mick & Jeanine Craven, Craven Wines
