Winery Info/Brand
It all started as a simple plan: to make a wine that we’d love to buy. We wanted quality wine that offered excellent value and great packaging. Not exactly an epiphany, perhaps, but enough to motivate us into action.Of course, first we had to come up with a name. To keep peace in the families, we took our wives’ initials (we each have one wife) — that is how we explained to Marie, Anette and Nicky that we were going to be “busy” most weekends. “It’s for you!” we told them. And mostly it’s true.We are José Conde and brothers Tyrrel and Philip Myburgh. We started making wine together in 2001. We’re further supported by a group of dedicated grape growers from the Agter-Paarl region.From our first 300 cases made in a tractor shed, we have grown to producing over 175 000 cases per year and exporting to 25 countries. Our biggest selling wines are our chenin blanc and cabernet sauvignon, but our area is also well known for shiraz and pinotage. And we think our other wines are pretty good, too.
Region Info/Origin
The Coastal Region is a significant wine-producing area in the Western Cape that forms the heart of the South African wine industry. Stretching from Darling in the north to Cape Point and Constantia in the south, and to Stellenbosch and Paarl in the east, it accounts for nearly half of all the area under vine in South Africa.The official Coastal Region viticultural zone measures approximately 65 miles from north to south, and 30 miles east to west. The Atlantic Ocean forms its western border, while the Boland Mountains separate it from the Breede River Valley in the east. The Hottentot Hollands Mountains in the south protect the region from the ocean influences that typify Walker Bay and Overberg in the south. Many standalone inselbergs (island mountains) dot the region, including Paarl Rock, Paardeberg and Simonsberg. The Coastal region has two different types of soil that are useful to wine growers, which are a deep red clay which helps to retain moisture for the grapes, and the light sandy earth of areas nearer to the shore which are known for their well-draining capacity. There are also some areas where lime and other stone-rich outcrops are used to give vine produce an additional flavour. These good soils, combined with a low level of rain but a very warm summer combine to create the rich and earthy flavour of the wines from this region. The climate is described as Mediterranean in temperature, although the winds from both the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean combine to produce limited sunshine outside of the summer, and in some areas of the Cape Coastal region wine producing is centred around cold-climate viticulture. Due to the wide variety of soils and temperatures, the Cape Coastal region can grow a number of different wines, from the Chenin Blanc (also known as Steen), to the Pinotage.