Wine words you'll hear in Stellenbosch
The words you'll meet on Stellenbosch labels, tasting sheets and farm signs, each explained in a few sentences. Where a term is a legal one, we give the rule behind it.
- Bordeaux-style blend
- A red wine blended from two or more of the Bordeaux grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot. In Stellenbosch these blends are usually led by Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, and many are sold under a name of their own. More
- Bush vine
- A vine grown without a trellis, trained to a short free-standing trunk with a few spurs arranged in a ring, the shape the French call gobelet. Bush vines can't be picked by machine and usually yield less than trellised vines, and many of the Cape's older, low-vigour vineyards are planted this way. More
- Cap Classique (Méthode Cap Classique, MCC)
- South African sparkling wine made by the traditional method, with the second fermentation in the bottle it is sold in. For grapes from the 2023 harvest onwards the law requires whole-bunch pressing and at least 12 months on the lees (nine months before that), and the legal class name is Méthode Cap Classique, shortened to MCC. The first was Simonsig's Kaapse Vonkel, a Chenin Blanc first made in Stellenbosch in 1971. More
- Cape Blend
- A red blend that includes Pinotage, usually alongside Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot or Shiraz. There is no legal definition, so how much Pinotage goes in is up to the producer. More
- Cape Dutch architecture
- The building style of the Cape's colonial farms from the late 17th to the early 19th century: whitewashed walls, thatched roofs, shuttered multi-paned windows and decorative gables. More
- Cape Vintage
- South Africa's equivalent of vintage port: a full-bodied, dark fortified wine from a single certified vintage, matured for at least a year in oak casks or tanks and sold only in glass. The word port has not been permitted on South African labels since 1 January 2012, so producers use Cape Vintage, Cape Ruby, Cape Tawny and Cape LBV instead.
- Cellar door
- The tasting room and shop at the winery itself, where you taste and buy direct from the producer. Some Stellenbosch cellar doors take walk-ins and others work by appointment only, so check before you drive out. More
- Certified Heritage Vineyards seal
- A seal on the bottle certifying the planting date of the vineyard a wine came from, issued through the Old Vine Project only for vineyards at least 35 years old. Planting dates are verified against SAWIS, the wine industry's official records. More
- Cinsaut (Cinsault)
- A red grape that South Africa's official cultivar list spells Cinsaut, long known locally as Hermitage and one of the two parents of Pinotage. Cape red plantings in the 1980s were mainly Cinsaut until Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot replaced much of it, and interest has returned over the past 10 to 15 years, helped by the Old Vine Project. More
- Cultivar
- The South African word for grape variety, used on labels and tasting sheets. A label can name a single cultivar only if at least 85% of the wine comes from it, and the same 85% rule applies to a vintage year printed on the label.
- District
- A Wine of Origin area defined by broad features such as mountains and rivers, larger than a ward and smaller than a region. Stellenbosch is a district, so WO Stellenbosch on a label means every grape was grown inside it. More
- Estate wine
- A wine grown, made and bottled on one registered unit, which can be a single farm or several neighbouring farms run as one with their own cellar. The term is legally protected: every step up to and including bottling has to happen on the unit where the grapes were grown.
- IPW (Integrated Production of Wine)
- A voluntary environmental sustainability scheme the South African wine industry set up in 1998, with 2000 the first certified vintage. Since the 2010 harvest producers can use one seal that certifies both Wine of Origin and IPW, and its number lets the wine be traced back through production. More
- Noble Late Harvest
- A sweet wine traditionally made from grapes shrivelled by botrytis, the fungus known as noble rot. By law the juice needs at least 28 degrees Balling before fermentation, nothing may be added to sweeten or fortify it, and the finished wine must hold more than 50 grams of sugar per litre.
- Old Vine Project
- A non-profit, started by viticulturist Rosa Kruger, that records, certifies and protects South African vineyards aged 35 years or more. It runs the Certified Heritage Vineyards seal and reports more than 130 members and 5,417 hectares of old vines in the country. More
- Pinotage
- South Africa's own red grape, a cross of Pinot Noir and Cinsaut (then called Hermitage) made by Professor Abraham Perold of Stellenbosch University in 1924, with the seeds planted in 1925. According to the Pinotage Association, the first Pinotage wine was made in 1941 and the first commercial vineyard planted in 1943. More
- Single vineyard
- A wine from one registered vineyard block of no more than six hectares, planted to a single cultivar. The block is registered with the Wine and Spirit Board, so the words on a label are a legal claim.
- Skin contact (orange wine)
- A white wine fermented on its grape skins, the way red wine is made. South African rules call it skin macerated white, allow orange wine as the label name, and require at least 96 hours on the skins, full malolactic fermentation and no more than 4 grams of sugar per litre.
- Steen
- The old Cape name for Chenin Blanc, still used on a few labels. Professor C.J. Orffer of Stellenbosch University confirmed in 1963 that Steen and Chenin Blanc were the same grape, and Chenin has been South Africa's most planted variety since records began in 1974, at about 18% of the national vineyard. More
- Straw wine
- The permitted label name for wine from naturally dried grapes, a sweet style where drying concentrates the sugar. The juice needs at least 28 degrees Balling, nothing may be added to sweeten or fortify it, and actual plus potential alcohol must reach at least 16%.
- Tasting fee
- What an estate charges for a tasting, usually a set flight of wines poured at the cellar door. Prices, what's in the flight and whether the fee comes off a bottle purchase vary from estate to estate, so check the estate's own page before you go. More
- Ward
- The smallest Wine of Origin area made up of several farms, drawn mainly on soil, climate and ecology. The Stellenbosch district has eight: Banghoek, Bottelary, Devon Valley, Jonkershoek Valley, Papegaaiberg, Polkadraai Hills, Simonsberg-Stellenbosch and Vlottenburg. Helderberg is a well-known part of Stellenbosch but not a registered ward. More
- Werf
- Afrikaans for farmyard: the group of homestead, cellar and farm buildings at the centre of an old Cape farm. Some are still enclosed by their original ring wall, as at Vergenoegd Löw in Stellenbosch. More
- WIETA
- The Wine and Agricultural Ethical Trade Association, a non-profit set up in 2002 that audits members against labour standards covering wages, working hours, housing, health and safety and freedom of association. Its Fair Labour seal, introduced in 2012, means the growers, cellars and bottlers behind that wine have passed an independent third-party audit.
- Wine of Origin (WO)
- South Africa's certification scheme for origin, cultivar and vintage, in place since 1973 and run by the Wine and Spirit Board. WO Stellenbosch on a label means 100% of the grapes were grown in Stellenbosch, and the numbered seal on the bottle shows the claims were checked and the wine was tasted by a Board panel. More
- WWF Conservation Champion
- A WWF South Africa programme for wine farms that conserve natural land and meet standards on biodiversity, water and energy, with members assessed every year. It grew out of the Biodiversity and Wine Initiative of 2004, took its current name in 2016 and had more than 60 member farms by 2026, which can show a Cape sugarbird logo on their bottles. More