We follow very basic winemaking techniques at Grangehurst. Besides a small quantity of rosé, we only make red wines and are able to make use of the traditional methods of winemaking such as fermentation in open vats (kuipe), punching of the skins with wooden paddles (pigeage) and pressing the skins in wooden basket presses. In 2004 we introduced a sorting table to enable us to remove MOG (Material Other than Grapes – such as leaves, bits of stalks) and unripe grapes prior to crushing.

After fermentation and pressing, our wines are matured in oak barrels. We have ± 80% French and ± 20% American oak barrels and the wines remain in barrels for between 10 and 30 months, during which time they are clarified by the natural settling and racking method. The only time our red wines are filtered is immediately prior to bottling, which is done on our premises. The rosé is filtered after cold stabilisation and again prior to bottling.

Our bottling system has evolved over the years and we are now able to bottle very gently without using any pumps – the wine gravity-flows from our upper level bottling tanks through a clarification filter into a 6-head filling machine. The bottles are corked using a semi-automatic corker (scewcaps for the rosé). The capsuling, labelling and other packaging operations are all done by hand.