The farm Wolfkloof dates back to 1880. Jan’s grandfather and father purchased Wolfkloof in 1973. The first wine was made in 2004, a Merlot made in a traditional French style. The fermentation starts spontaneously, without using any yeast on the berries or juice. After fermentation , when res-sugar is below 2 balling, the wine goes to the barrels, waiting for the second process of fermentation to start, namely malalactic fermentation. Wine is naturally filtered by hand. The wine is kept for one year in barrels, thereafter it is bottled and kept in the cellar for another year, before releasing.
The Merlot’s name was inspired by the young Frederick Kannemeyer, aged 7, who took a bottle, filled it up with tea , sealed it and labelled the bottle with his own design. When the first Merlot was bottled 5 years later, we realized Frederick’s design was perfect, and named our Merlot “Child’s Dream”.
Wolfkloof is a Boutique Winery, meaning that the wines are handcrafted, small amounts, with as little mechanical interference as possible, therefore naturally made “Single Vineyard Wine”. The 0.8 hectares Merlot block (east-west slope direction) is registered by the South African Wine Institute (SAWIS), so that only Merlot from this unique terroir maybe used for making “Child’s Dream Merlot”.
Currently, Wolfkloof has a range of three wines, namely, Child’s Dream Merlot; Wild yeast Chardonnay and a Dry Merlot Rosé.