Vilafonté

Dr Phil Freese and Zelma Long purchased 40 hectares of land at the foot of the Simonsberg mountain in Paarl in 1996, planting their first vines the following the year. The Californian couple (who had both worked for Robert Mondavi) had gone to South Africa to consult for Warwick Estate, then owned by the Ratcliffe family, but while Freese was working on his PhD and ancient soils and the wine they produced, he discovered that South Africa was home to vilafontes – the world’s oldest documented soil type (and the inspiration for the property’s name). Freese and Long decided to see whether this ancient soil (thought to have originated up to 800 million years ago) could produce fine wine – banking on its poor, degraded, nutrient-deficient state.

While originally Sydney Back was their partner, he sadly passed away and Mike Ratcliffe – then just joining his family business at Warwick – took over his shares and joined the project in 2001. Together they made experimental wines in 2000, 2001 and 2002, choosing the 2003 vintage as their first release. The team had conceived a project with one single wine, however they found the vineyard produced two distinct styles – and so they created Series C (a Cabernet Sauvignon-driven blend) and Series M (a Merlot-and-Malbec-driven blend), two flagship estate wines.

Any estate fruit declassified from these two wines goes into Seriously Old Dirt, the brand’s entry-level label, largely made with purchased fruit from interesting sites around the Western Cape, and offering an earlier-drinking style.

The Series M is aged for just under two years in around a quarter new French oak, while the Series C sees around 80% new wood (for the same period of time).

The vines are farmed sustainably, but without any official certification – choosing for a more pragmatic approach to preserve quality and economic viability. The team is constantly running trials and experiments, with detailed analytics of every element of the project. High-tech root-zone irrigation has allowed them to reduce water use by up to 70%, while the cellar is entirely solar-powered.

As of December 2023, Freese and Long have retired, leaving Ratcliffe at the helm of the project. Edward Pietersen leads the vine-growing team, while the Vilafonté wines are made by Chris de Vries and Arlene Mains is in charge of Seriously Old Dirt.

Production averages over 30,000 cases for all three wines, although Seriously Old Dirt represents around 80% of production.

The 2021 Series C became the joint-highest-scoring South African wine when it was awarded 99 points by the Wine Advocate in December 2023.