Tasting Room & Cellar to close temporarily.
After the 18th harvest of Ernie Els Wines the winery is excited to announce that they will commence with some eagerly anticipated renovations on 1 July 2018. Due to these extensive renovations, the cellar and tasting room will be closed from 22 June 2018 and will re-open approximately October 2019.
“For the past 18 years we have been focused on producing refined red wines which really showcase what the Helderberg and our particular terroir has to offer. Every year we make small changes in our vineyards and winemaking techniques in our quest to always improve and now the time has come for us to make the big changes in the cellar,” says Louis Strydom, Winemaker for all 18 vintages and MD for close to a decade.
Strydom goes on to say, “The cellar will actually reduce in size and allow us to really focus on our flagship wines, the Signature and Proprietors, and allow us to work with small micro batches of vineyard pockets. This is extremely exciting for me as it will allow us to really showcase the incredible work done in the vineyards and show what our terroir is capable of.”
The estate has 11 different clones of Cabernet Sauvignon planted on its 70 hectares and each block and row is specifically farmed to ensure that its best expression is brought into the cellar. The new cellar will now be able to preserve these specific expressions and profiles and slowly coax them into the bottle.
As part of the project, the team will be overhauling the tasting room and adding a brand new 120 seat restaurant with breathtaking vistas over Stellenbosch and all the way to Lions Head and Table Mountain. “Wine will be the focus and the hero of the entire project so the restaurant and its offering will be created to celebrate and compliment the wines. We will create a vinoteque which will showcase a full library of all of our vintages and you can expect to see several vintages of wines available to enjoy with your meal,” adds Strydom.
It will be business as usual, however, for the Ernie Els Wines team and the wines will still be available through their extensive network of distributors worldwide.
Contrary to previous reports, the Ernie Els brand will continue ad perpetuum and this project is all designed to take the brand and the wines to the next level in terms of quality and its visitor experience. As one of the most widely recognized ultra-premium South African wine brands around the world it is difficult not to share in the excitement of what is to come.
