ENERGY – According to the Law of Conservation of Energy, energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed from one form to another. 

It can be heard from hundreds of metres away. Excited voices. The trusty rumble of wagon-pulling tractors, the snip-snip of secateurs and the thump of heavy bunches of grapes dropping in the picking bins. These sounds, sights and smells mean one thing. It’s harvest season in the Boland! 

If you were a bird flying over our farm, you would see teams of workers dotted in the blocks of vines, enthusiastically picking the fruits of the season. Full, ripe grapes that can’t wait to become wine. Not a minute wasted and not a foot dragged. Everyone knows this moment is rooted in months of preparation and care. The energy of our people can’t be contained. And that’s where the story of the Babylonstoren Mourvèdre Rosé begins. 

After being hand-picked, we follow the grapes on their short journey to the cellar. Upon arrival, they are tipped into the destemmer, where the grapes are separated from the stems, and lightly crushed – just to break the skin and release the juice. From here the grapes and juice get pumped to the balloon press through a mash cooler that lowers the temperature of the grapes to prevent the fermentation process from starting. It has minimal skin contact to impart only the faintest blush colour, and then it’s off to the tanks. Here, yeast is carefully selected and added, and we see the juice become a wonderful, beautiful rosé – the energy visibly present in small bubbles as the light catches them. When the yeast is spent, the tasting begins, and micro adjustments are made until our cellar master gives the ultimate satisfied, smiling nod.  

The bottling process is executed with care and precision, letting the wine flow into the pre-printed clear bottles. The cork is the final full-stop. It’s ready for you. 

The story of our rosé is a bit of a small-town success story. From humble beginnings under the Boland sun, to harvesting and bottling here on the farm, and then the journey by boat to share its liquid sunshine with distinguished guests at the most prestigious flower show in the world.  

“It’s always a massive honour to pour our rosé at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. I like to say it’s unofficially the first rosé of the new harvest year to be poured in the northern hemisphere,” says cellar master Klaas Stoffberg. “There’s a lot of pressure on us to capture the essence of the harvest and have it bottled in time. The wine essentially bottle-matures on the way over to England. It’s incredibly rewarding to uncork this crisp, fresh rosé in London, in celebration of spring and beautiful gardens everywhere.” 

Serve chilled, in a generous glass. Expect notes of strawberry, watermelon and subtle rose, with an energetic, vibrant finish. Energy concentrated in these robust berries, picked, pressed, released and brought to beautiful fruition by the hands of our people, for yours.  

Cheers!