Founded in 1998 by drinking-buddies and (then!) youthful idealists Ben Radford and Alex Dale, Winery of Good Hope set-out to partake in the exciting emergence from obscurity of the Cape wine industry, after the historic Mandela-miracle and the opportunities which that unleashed for all.
Some years later, Barossa-born Ben Radford returned to his homeland, while Alex Dale let his Cape roots deepen further, setting-about developing their winery into one of the very best wine names in the country.
Alex was born into a family and entourage of wine merchants, importers and distributors in Great Britain. Escaping in his mid-teens to read French literature at Dijon University, he became overwhelmed whilst studying (or drinking, as might be more accurately remarked) by the culture and tradition of the great wines of Burgundy. Literature became history, and wine a way of life. Galvanized 11 years later by a highly successful career in marketing wines for some of the most revered names in Burgundy (not least Domaine Jacques Prieur and the Drouhin family), Alex sought new horizons and a real challenge.
Having worked harvests in numerous cellars in Burgundy earlier on in his career (the first in 1982, at the age of 15), Alex had been lured to South Africa by vineyard owning friends during the late eighties, and subsequently worked a harvest there in 1990. Over the course of six successive years` visits, he discovered the beauty and the potential of the Cape, fully realising that a new wine frontier had to emerge, once democracy was realised.
Another great friend of Alex’s, Edouard Labeye, was making some fabulous, innovative wines from the Rhone Valley and the Languedoc, where climatic conditions are quite similar to those we enjoy in the Cape. Alex approached Edouard in the late Eighties to join him in South Africa, during harvest time, with a view to helping combine some time-tested, traditional methods to the more progressive New World approach. A decade later, they couldn’t get rid of Edouard if they tried and he has a huge impact in the production of the wines, from the vineyard right through to the bottle.
"Three individual vineyard sites were used in producing this Pinot Noir. The first, on the cool Darling Hills, in the path of the chilling Atlantic breezes. The second, on top of the Bottelary Hills in Stellenbosch. The third, beyond the Stellenbosch Mountains, in a site near Simondium. In each case, relative altitude and temperature played a key role. The vines are all Dijon clones and density, trellising and canopy management conducted in such a manner that the more subtle characters of Pinot could be best expressed.
Green harvest thinning is carried-out sufficiently early in the growing cycle, allowing for
focused development of a smaller yield (38hl/ha). The fruit is rigorously hand-sorted and tiny parcels are vinified
separately in small open-top tanks with traditional Burgundian methods.
Pump-overs and punch-downs are kept to a minimum as elegance is sought rather than super structured Pinot. Each of the vineyards gives a particular component to the final blend –the Darling Hills fruit has typical earthy Pinot character, the Stellenbosch fruit displays wonderful raspberry flavours and the Simondium fruit exudes a clean, mineral acidity."
