Wellington-based Bosman Family Vineyards has looked at Italian wine styles, grape varieties from Sicily being particularly suitable to plant locally, given climate change and our current shortage of water. The wine estate has been in the Bosman family ownership for eight generations already. 

I was sent a bottle each of Filia 2015, an orange wine made in the Italian style, and Nero d’Avola 2015, an Italian varietal, by Manley Communications: 

Fides 2015

Fides orange wine represents a 6000-year history of orange wines, which originated from Northern Italy and Georgia. The wine-making process remains the same, with white grapes being fermented on their skins, giving the wine a gold/orange colour. The wine has a ‘complex texture, tannin structure, and flavour.

Winemaker Corlea Fourie used Grenache Blanc grapes to produce the wine, which was naturally fermented over a three-week period, with daily punch downs and pump-overs. Thereafter the wine was gently pressed, aged in older Russian oak barrels for six months, and then in the bottle for another six months, before being released. 

Fides 2015 costs R185 per bottle, and can be purchased online, from the wine estate, and from selected restaurants. 

Nero d’Avola 2015

The Nero d’Avola grape variety has proven itself to be hardy, in coping with hotter temperatures and less water. 

Owner Petrus Bosman traveled to Sicily specifically, and to Italy generally, to find grape varieties suitable to our wine region. He brought back cuttings of Nero d’Avola, having found it to be a thriving grape variety and making excellent quality wines. He went through the process of quarantining the cuttings, then propagating them, and thereafter planting them. Ten years later Bosman Family Vineyards harvested the grapes from the first Nero d’Avola Vineyards in our country, and has released its second vintage of the wine this year. 

The Bosman Family Vineyards Nero d’Avola costs R150 per bottle, and can be purchased online, from the wine estate, and at selected retail outlets.  

Bosman Family Vineyards, Lelienfontein, Hexberg Road, Wellington. Tel (021) 873-3170. www.bosmanwines.com Twitter: @BosmanWines 

Chris von Ulmenstein, WhaleTales Blog: www.chrisvonulmenstein.com/blog Tel +27 082 55 11 323 Twitter:@Ulmenstein Facebook: Chris von Ulmenstein Instagram: @Chris_Ulmenstein