Gedeelte Wines

Gedeelte Wines is one of the most unconventional wine estates in South Africa. Situated near St Helena Bay on the West Coast — far from the traditional Cape Winelands — it is the domain of John Bouwer, one of the country's only winemakers to age wines under flor, the veil of yeast best known for producing fino and manzanilla sherries in Spain's Jerez region.

The vineyard was first settled in the early 1800s and the current vines were planted in 1978 — Palomino and the exceptionally rare Barbarossa, both as bush vines on limestone-rich soils. Sauvignon Blanc was added in 2002 on trellises. These three varieties form the backbone of the Gedeelte range, but it is the winemaking method that sets the estate apart entirely.

Bouwer's flor develops naturally, a product of the humid, salt-laden sea air that blows in from the Atlantic. Unlike the wines of Jerez, his flor wines are not fortified with grape spirits, resulting in wines that are considerably lower in alcohol than sherry yet possess the same haunting complexity — notes of almond, brine, dried herbs, and savoury depth that defy easy categorisation. The Sauvignon Blanc is picked ripe, pressed, fermented, and then left for flor to begin growing two to three weeks later. It is then aged under flor for four and a half years before release, a process that demands extraordinary patience.

Gedeelte has been creating wines in this traditional manner since 1978, making it a South African institution of sorts — albeit one known mainly to connoisseurs and wine writers rather than casual tourists. The estate produces tiny quantities, and the wines are exported to specialist importers in the UK, New Zealand, and Europe.

The Barbarossa is particularly noteworthy: Gedeelte produces what is believed to be the only Barbarossa wine in South Africa, a red variety of Corsican origin that is almost extinct globally. Bouwer also produces a Vin John, a flor-aged Sauvignon Blanc named after himself, and a Barren Sands Palomino. The wines are eccentric, intellectual, and utterly unlike anything else made on the African continent.

The name Gedeelte means 'portion' or 'share' in Afrikaans, an apt description for a property that occupies a modest portion of the West Coast landscape yet produces wines of outsized character. The limestone soils that underpin the vineyard contribute a mineral backbone to the whites, while the dry, warm summers tempered by cool Atlantic breezes create ideal conditions for the slow, patient development that flor demands. For those who seek wines that challenge convention, Gedeelte is essential drinking.