About the Wine

Our small wine estate is located in the Tulbagh valley.

The Estate
Morgenster Estate in the Western Cape, just 35 minutes outside of Cape Town, specialises in three Bordeaux red wine cultivars and our forte is blending. More recently, Morgenster has also planted small quantities of Italian varieties Nebbiolo and Sangiovese. Director & Wine Consultant Pierre Lurton (a name synonymous with Bordeaux) works in tandem with resident Oenologist/Winemaker Marius Lategan and the viticulture team, Gerhard Bruwer and François Viljoen, to offer to Morgenster's customers the ultimate best in a red blend.

The two Morgenster wine labels have not only established themselves in South Africa but also on the international market, being exported to the UK, Europe, North America, Canada, Sweden and Singapore.

Morgenster's flagship wine, the Morgenster 2003 was launched in March 2007 while our second label, Lourens River Valley, has already been on the market for a couple of years. The sixth vintage of this label, the Morgenster Lourens River Valley 2003, was also released in March 2007.

Our wine farm's recent accolades have come in from various sources and corners of the Globe - two 4½ star ratings in John Platter 2006 and 2007 for Morgenster and Lourens River Valley; Grape Magazines 5 star rating of the Morgenster 2000 and 4½ for the Lourens River Valley 2000; Steve Tanzer International Wine Cellar gave the Morgenster 2001 91+ - the wine garnered 88 from Robert Parker. The Advocate and Michael Fridjon's Top Ten selection in the December 2005 Wine Magazine – see the list of awards for the full details.

Click below to buy Morgenster Wines direct from the wine farm

Click below to buy Meerlust Wines direct from the wine farm

In the old family cellar, with hand-plastered clay walls, Lourens works closely with his right-hand man, John Sebonika, to steer the grapes through the press, into the tanks, barrels and finally the bottle. It is a hands-on process, with the focus on gentle handling, the gravity fed movement of the wine and a personal selection of yeasts and wooden casks for maturation. All the labeling is also done on the farm, by hand.

“It is important to keep every different clone and grapes from different slopes separate during harvest, as well as in the cellar. It gives more components for the winemaker to experiment with and the opportunity to make a wine with complex flavours”

Asara Wine Estate prides itself on being "Out with the Ordinary"...
We strive to produce a range of award winning wines that can please a diverse collection of palettes - from the discerning wine connoisseur to the every day wine drinker - and have become, according to the renowned John Platter wine guide "one of the Cape's latest success stories..."

The name Asara is derived from the names of the African gods of Earth, Sun and Sky - Astar, Asis & Asase - expressing the harmony in nature's elements which is reflected in our range of wines. This perfect union gives the wines from Asara their unique character.

At Asara, we focus on the extra-ordinary, the quest for perfection and a complete delight in sheer indulgence. This approach is followed right through the entire winemaking process - starting with the careful harvesting of our grapes, through to the cellaring and maturation of our wines. The proof in this philosophy can be found in each and every bottle. Our production is approximately 65% red and 35% white wines, led by our flagship Bell Tower Collection and all of our wines are grown, matured and bottled on the estate, with 137ha under vine. Our entire range of wines offers exuberant structure and taste, beautifully balanced with undeniable depth, allowing for a celebration of the senses...

The Wines of Avondale

Organic is not just a buzz word at Avondale. It's about promoting life and preserving a living system. It’s about treating our vines like indigenous trees. Pioneering viticulturist, Johnathan Grieve says: “We are returning our soil to its original, vibrant, natural state through Bio-LOGIC, a gentle integration of old practices with new science.” Owned by the Grieve family, Avondale is committed to the creation of fine natural wines.

As we believe in the balance of nature, we adopted the Albrecht system of soil balancing. It involves the balancing of soil nutrients and correcting imbalances that developed over the years. This is obviously a very intricate process and requires a lot of input in the beginning, but there are rewarding results with regard to soil life, soil structure and plant growth.

The system also changes one’s philosophy about fertilizing and types of nutrients. The key is that each input should encourage soil life. We try to focus on natural predators and natural fungicides, like the following:

* A flock of ducks controls the whole of Avondale’s snail population, eliminating the need for chemical snail pellets. The ducks are effective and cost-saving.
* We use two Bacillus strains, one against worms and the second to combat downy mildew. Both these bacteria occur naturally and are very specific in their action.
* The predatory wasp Coccidoxenoidses perminutes or mealy bug destroyer has been released on the farm during the last three seasons and has been a great success against mealy bug.

The Auction Crossing wines are produced in the Hex River Crossing Private Cellar and are a result of a collaboration between De Villiers Graaff, AJ Reyneke and Leon Dippenaar.

When De Villiers Graaff and AJ Reyneke bought the table grape farm "The Pines" in 2003, they found that the old wine cellar next to the old Cape Dutch homestead was still in good working order.

The cellar had originally been build in 1938 and had been out of use for some 30 years. The new owners were enthusiastic to revive the cellar and joined forces with Leon Dippenaar who is the winemaker at Hex River Crossing Private Cellar. The old press and pumps were serviced, barrels ordered and grapes were sourced and the first wines were made in February 2004.

Our wine is the product of hands-on love and a single plot vineyard

We openly confess that our heart belongs to the vineyard. Throughout the year we manicure the canopy in endless hours to perfection, aiming at creating optimal conditions for perfect ripening.

At harvest, the bunches are carefully handpicked, with a stringent selection and sorting of the berries already in the vineyard before it is transported in small 15 kg crates, guaranteeing that only the best and undamaged fruit makes it into the cellar. Here, the fruit is controlled again on a sorting table, then destemmed, slightly crushed and finally fermented in stainless steel fermenters.

However, before fermentation has started, we generally “bleed” the mash, i.e. drain off some free run juice. This enhances the concentration of our main wine, while yielding some beautiful grape juice of top quality, which is then cold-fermented separately to become our popular Pink Merlot.
Malolactic fermentation and further maturation of our red wine takes place in small 225 l oak barrels selected from top French cooperages. After one year of barrel maturation, the different batches are carefully evaluated and blended in tedious series of blind-tasting, and the optimal combination will eventually make up our flagship wine Bein Merlot.

Avontuur Wine Estate is a producer of top-quality wines, particularly Reds. The soils, aspect and meso-climate, combined with the cool southeasterly winds from the nearby Atlantic Ocean in Summer, produce grapes of exceptional quality .

Picture it for yourself. Vine upon vine of ripening fruit, the shining Indian Ocean stretched out before you, green horse paddocks surrounded by white fences, Table Mountain in the distance, a sunny terrace and the gloriously rugged Helderberg Mountain behind you.

Avontuur Estate was bought by Tony Taberer in 1983. At that stage the farm was only 40 hectares in size, with Cinsaut and Steen making up the majority of the vineyards. These vines had been planted ten years earlier, along with a block each of Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinotage.