Krone Cap Classique | Tulbagh

Krone Cap Classique produce "vintage-only", traditional method sparkling wines on the 300-year-old Twee Jonge Gezellen wine estate in Tulbagh. Their Cap Classique's celebrate a commitment to the vintage and the character of each harvest.

Family-owned, the Rands family purchased the farm in 2012. Brother and sister, Svend and Abigail are involved intimately in all aspects of the estate, from vineyard plantings to marketing. Cellarmaster Rudiger Gretschel leads the winemaking division, a renowned Cape winemaker he pours his considerable knowledge into both the viticulture as well as the vinification, working seamlessly alongside Cap Classique specialist and head winemaker Stephan de Beer.

The making of vintage-only Krone Cap Classique is directed by nature: from soil to vine to bottle. The Krone winemaking team channels the rain, the sun, the wind into structure, complexity and balance and then seals it all with a cork. The site-specific rocky soils of Tulbagh are like nowhere else in the Cape Winelands. Twee Jonge Gezellen’s vineyards run up the eastern slopes of the Saronsberg Mountain. The mountain is known as “the rainmaker” thanks to the rain-shadow effect created by the peak. Protected from the buffeting of the Cape’s summer South-Easter, the elevated vineyards are raised from the valley floor and benefit from the cool airflow that descends the mountain slopes by night. Ripening in Tulbagh occurs on average two weeks earlier than in the majority of the Western Cape’s wine regions. This allows the grapes to retain their natural acidity, which is so important for the making of elegant Cap Classique. This has enabled Krone to use malolactic conversion -normally rare in the making of Cap Classique - which ensures richness of flavour without losing the fresh acidity that makes Krone Cap Classique so sought-after.