Gold, From The Ground Up
Spier celebrated a stellar 2021 awards season. The prestigious Platter’s Wine Guide awarded us as the ‘Editor’s Choice: Winery of the Year 2022’, in recognition of its "rare combination of achievements...excellence at both the rarified and volume ends of the market”.
We also received top honours at the Veritas Wine Awards with the ‘Duimpie Bayly Veritas Vertex Award’ for our 2018 Spier Creative Block 5. A Bordeaux-style blend, Creative Block 5 was selected as the overall champion wine from almost 1300 entries. Incredibly, this is the second time that Spier walks away with this trophy! With a legacy rooted in over 300 years of winemaking heritage, it's safe to say that our wines certainly meet the gold standard.
For Spier’s Cellar Master Johan Jordaan, good grapes are made in the vineyard - but great wines are a team effort.
“Spier’s winemaking philosophy starts where all great winemaking should: in the vineyard. We prefer to approach each block individually, placing great effort and knowledge into the details” shares Johan.
This sentiment is echoed by Viticulturist Bennie Liebenberg, whose goal is to express the best from each site.
“What we do in the vineyard can significantly impact the wine’s ultimate quality. This includes the kind of rootstock we use, what kind of trellis system there is, the pruning and cropping that gets done, and when we harvest. My job is to ensure we do all these things optimally.”
Once the grapes enter the Spier cellar, the winemaking team’s motivation continues to be to maintain a varietal purity while respecting the environment. Each team member brings a unique skill set to the cellar, with everyone guided by an overarching spirit of collaboration and belief that it all starts at the source.
Established in 1692, Spier’s longevity is deeply rooted in treating the land and its people with respect. This mantra ties in with our larger Growing For Good initiatives, which are aimed at empowering our communities to unleash positive social and environmental change. As stewards of 620ha, we believe in being good neighbours, in working together to regenerate the soil, restore the health of our rivers, and provide nourishment to our communities to ensure a future that is resilient, healthy, and thriving for generations to come. Ultimately, it’s this holistic approach that ensures each Spier wine is worth its weight in gold.