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The Story
Our story begins back in 2007 while we were both 'dragging hose' in Sonoma, California, for the harvest season. A chance meeting at the Flamingo Hotel, between an Aussie and a South African, has eventually turned into Craven Wines. After both having taken to the text books at our respective universities, we decided to hit the road, see lots of things, work in lots of places and try and learn as much as possible from this massive wine world.
Since meeting we have both been on a journey to discover how we could create something special that resonates with our beliefs and our pure love of wine. Luckily enough, we had very similar ideas. So back in 2011 we moved to Stellenbosch, South Africa, a place we both have an affinity for. Stellenbosch has such an amazing array of sites and terroir, and this landscape is perfect for what we want to do. Which is to make site-specific, honest wines.
------In terms of 'winemaking' we like to keep things as simple as possible. To try and achieve the wines we want to make, we feel the best methods are being hands off, while being very hands on. In other words, we pay serious attention to the wine but we do not manipulate the wine. We believe the best way to express site and fruit is to show just that.
We do not use cultured yeasts, enzymes, fining agents, etc. throughout the winemaking process.
We only use older oak and try our best to find larger format barrels. We also work with concrete fermenters with certain wines, as we feel this allows the more delicate varieties to maintain their purity. We allow our wines to stabilise naturally, if they so want to. Essentially, a small amount of SO2 is the only thing added to our wines.
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