Craven “Cinsaut”

Stellenbosch, South Africa | 2023

Mick and Jeanine Craven are part of the new wave that has helped redefine Stellenbosch beyond its traditional image of polished Cabernet and Bordeaux-style blends. Mick is Australian, Jeanine is South African, and the two met while working harvest in Sonoma before settling in Stellenbosch in 2011. They founded Craven Wines shortly after, beginning with just a few barrels of Pinot Noir from Jeanine’s family vineyards, and have since built a small, site-focused project centered entirely on the varied coastal vineyards of Stellenbosch.

Craven remains deliberately small in scale, with production built around single-vineyard, single-variety bottlings rather than estate blends. The wines are made with a light hand: fruit is sourced from growers farming with organic principles, fermentations are native, additions are minimal, and aging takes place mostly in concrete or older, larger-format oak to preserve purity rather than add weight. Their goal is not to make “big” Stellenbosch wine, but to show the freshness, salt, and detail that can come from the region’s granitic, wind-cooled sites.

Their 2022 Cinsault comes from Rustenhof, a dry-farmed bush-vine block in the Faure area of Stellenbosch, only about three miles from the Atlantic. The vines are planted on granitic sand and farmed with care by Pieter Bredell with Jeanine’s guidance. The fruit is 100% destemmed, fermented with native yeasts in concrete, given eight days on the skins, and aged for seven months in concrete tanks before bottling.

The result is pale, lifted, and beautifully refreshing: red cherry, cranberry, pomegranate, rooibos, white pepper, and a faint wild-herb edge. It is light on its feet but not simple, with the sandy-granite soils and coastal proximity giving the wine a saline, stony finish. Serve it slightly chilled and you’ll see exactly why Cinsault has become one of South Africa’s most exciting red grapes.