An intense mélange of white pepper, violets and dark chocolate on the nose that leads to a toasted tobacco and cigar box finish on the palate. A serious wine that would own a place in any cellar, 'Emily' Petit Verdot expresses beautiful perfume, dry tannins and hints of cedar and violet, through its inky-black visage.
Enjoy with robust flavors like roast duck, rosemary, pepper, caramelized onion and hard, aged cheeses.
Enjoy with robust flavors like roast duck, rosemary, pepper, caramelized onion and hard, aged cheeses.
Two East facing Petit Verdot vineyards, planted adjacent to each other produce perfumed yet powerful wines. Hand harvested at the point of intersection between tannin ripeness and fruit concentration, the fermenting juice is pumped over once a day for the first two thirds of the fermentation and then left alone to ferment dry without any more extraction.
The result is perfumed, ink black wines with fine, dry tannins and hints of cedar and violets. The various parcels within these vineyards are fermented apart, this allows us to select the best 5 barrels for this reserve bottling. The wine is aged in 100% new, tight grain French oak barrels for 18 months.
Winemaker: Gyles Webb
The result is perfumed, ink black wines with fine, dry tannins and hints of cedar and violets. The various parcels within these vineyards are fermented apart, this allows us to select the best 5 barrels for this reserve bottling. The wine is aged in 100% new, tight grain French oak barrels for 18 months.
Winemaker: Gyles Webb
Thelema, situated on the spectacular Helshoogte Pass in Stellenbosch, is a family owned and managed wine estate and the home of Thelema and Sutherland Vineyards wines. Gyles Webb bought Thelema, a charming dilapidated fruit farm, in 1983 with the help of his wife’s family.
Fruit orchards were pulled out and vines were planted. The manor house was restored and the first wines under the Thelema label were released in 1988. The ripe pure-fruited wines were a revelation to many and it wasn’t long before the romantic tale of a run-down old fruit farm became the success story of an avant-garde winery.
By the mid 90's Thelema’s wines sold out within a month after release, making it one of the most sought-after wine estates in South Africa. The high altitude and the deep red soils are ideal for premium quality wine grape production. They do not buy in any grapes and all wines are bottled on the estate to maintain absolute control over every aspect of the wine production. The terroir in combination with Gyles Webb’s winemaking style results in flavorful, flamboyant, complex and long-lasting wines with a distinctive South African character.
In 2000, Gyles moved into the role of cellar master and handed over the winemaking duties to the talented Rudi Schultz (one of the famous Schultz winemaking brothers). We hope you enjoy our wines and it would be a pleasure to welcome you at Thelema for a chat and a taste of our latest release.
Fruit orchards were pulled out and vines were planted. The manor house was restored and the first wines under the Thelema label were released in 1988. The ripe pure-fruited wines were a revelation to many and it wasn’t long before the romantic tale of a run-down old fruit farm became the success story of an avant-garde winery.
By the mid 90's Thelema’s wines sold out within a month after release, making it one of the most sought-after wine estates in South Africa. The high altitude and the deep red soils are ideal for premium quality wine grape production. They do not buy in any grapes and all wines are bottled on the estate to maintain absolute control over every aspect of the wine production. The terroir in combination with Gyles Webb’s winemaking style results in flavorful, flamboyant, complex and long-lasting wines with a distinctive South African character.
In 2000, Gyles moved into the role of cellar master and handed over the winemaking duties to the talented Rudi Schultz (one of the famous Schultz winemaking brothers). We hope you enjoy our wines and it would be a pleasure to welcome you at Thelema for a chat and a taste of our latest release.
