Spice Route Chakalaka

Spice Route Chakalaka

Five centuries ago the ancient mariners braved uncharted seas to round the Cape of Good Hope in search of exotic spices. Their nerve and dash inspire the Spice Route philosophy. We have found our signature wine style in the rolling hills along the Cape’s West Coast, where unirrigated vines produce grapes with small thick skinned berries – ripe fruit that is dense, rich and full flavoured. A passionate dedication to exceptional quality and traditional hand crafting captures the essence of this fruit in the wines of the Spice Route.

Chakalaka is Spice Route’s signature wine. It is a blend of six different grape varieties. The varieties for this vintage: Grenache, Carignan, Durif, Mourvèdre, Shiraz and Tannat were selected for their suitability to the Swartland’s dry growing conditions. Fruit for this wine is sourced from predominantly dry-farmed bush vines, planted on Richter 99 rootstock, which is known for producing deep rooted vines. The region’s deep iron-rich clay and decomposed granite soils have a good water retaining capacity and produce elegant and robust red wines.

Vinification

The grapes were hand harvested, destemmed and lightly crushed and then fermented in open top concrete fermenters (‘kuipe’). Manual punching down took place during fermentation. The wines were then racked off and sent to barrels for malolactic fermentation and further ageing. Each component for the blend was matured in seasoned French and American oak before blending occurred. Post blending, the final wine was returned to the same used oak barrels for further maturation before bottling.

Tasting Notes & Technical Details

This wine is deep ruby in colour. On the nose, spicy aromas mingle with blackcurrant, cherry and plum fruit. Full-bodied and rich, the palate displays well-integrated oak and smooth, structured tannins. Chakalaka, a Zulu word that implies togetherness, refers to a South African blend of spices, used to add flavour to local dishes. This wine is inspired by the unique combination of flavours.

Charles Back was an early pioneer in the Swartland, founding Spice Route there in 1998 after tasting an exceptional Sauvignon Blanc and immediately buying the land on which it grew. “Without [Charles]…the Swartland would still be regarded as a rural backwater”, wrote Tim Atkin MW, who awarded the winery ‘Cru Bourgeois’ status in his South Africa Classification in 2019. Today, the Swartland is the source of many of South Africa’s outstanding wines, and Spice Route remains one of its best and most credible producers. This is largely because they own all their own vineyards, driven by a belief that that producing exceptional wine begins in the vines. Their vineyard holdings are comprised of 100 hectares in Malmesbury and Darling. The former, all bush trained and planted on Malmesbury shale and red clay subsoils, give the fruit grown there an intensity that makes this region so exciting.

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Spice Route Chakalaka