Seasoned boutique winemaker Albert Ahrens began his wine making
career working in Champagne, Priorat and the Rhône Valley. He now drives
40,000km per year between vineyards in search of the perfect grapes to make the
Ahrens Family wines at his cellar in Wildepaardejacht - a spectacularly serene
location beneath the Du Toitskloof mountains just outside of Paarl.
His wealth of experience is reflected in his amazing wines. He
produces terroir-driven wines from all over the Cape, taking in the Swartland,
Voor-Paardeberg, Stellenbosch (Bottelary to be precise), Franschhoek and Elgin.
Wines that, in Albert’s words, have “an address” to them, an identity wound up
in the environment. He convinces growers to sell him tiny amounts of their very
best grapes, so while there's not much of the wine made, it comes from the
finest fruit going. Furthermore, his winemaking is done as naturally as
possible using only the natural indigenous yeast from the vineyards in order
for the wines to embrace their own identity of their origins.