Total production 294 bottles! Gorgeous sappiness to the nose, with ripe romano peppers, like walking into a green house on a hot day and white pepper too. There’s a little celery salt and aniseed on the palate, soft leather and fresh acidity. Sands Cab Franc is from a small bush vine vineyard planted in the early 90s in the decomposed Table Mountain sandstone soils on the southern edge of Paarl. We were utterly blown away on tasting Chris’ wines on a rare Swig catch up day in late October 2022.

#Tasting#

It’s thanks to Alex Starey of Keermont estate that we had the introduction to up-and-coming young winemaker, Chris Keet Jnr of Weather Report. Whilst his day job sees him working at Bot River Gabrielskloof estate, Weather Report is his small-production own label, so far solely exploring Cabernet Franc from a handful of tiny sites across the Western Cape. Wine positively flows in Chris’ veins. His uncle is Chris Keet of Keet wines, formerly winemaker at former SA icon, Cordoba. He made the 1995 vintage of their Crescendo,one of South Africa’s first cult wines.