Rust en Vrede's award-winning Shiraz

For many years the Engelbrecht family and their winemakers have when it comes to Shiraz always known the true potential of Stellenbosch’s Helderberg region. Rust en Vrede has a distinctive history of producing award-winning Shiraz and Shiraz blends.

Kevin Arnold is a former winemaker for Rust en Vrede and is now running his own winery in the Helderberg, Waterford Estate. Kevin is also producing stunning award-winning Shiraz. There is a reason that winemakers in this area call it the ‘golden triangle’!

Each winemaker has distinct ideas as to what exactly it is that makes the Helderberg region produce such unique wines. Opinions vary from the soil types, climatic conditions, or the chosen grape varietal. At the end of the day, they conclude that Shiraz is the ideal grape for the Helderberg.

Rust en Vrede’s own winemaker, Coenie Snyman, has recently found success with two soon-to-be-released wines. These wines are both perfect examples of the expression of Shiraz from the Rust en Vrede property. When Coenie and Jean Engelbrecht (proprietor) started conceptualising these two wines, they both knew that Shiraz had to play a major role. Both the Rust en Vrede Syrah* and the Rust en Vrede 1694 blend (named for the year the governor of the Cape granted rights to the land) come for the same single vineyard block, block seven, which has a proven history of producing premium Shiraz fruit.

Coenie recently entered these two new wines into the prestigious South African Veritas Awards, not knowing what to expect as the wines had not yet been released. Of 1753 wines entered into the competition, these wines rose to the top. To Coenie’s delight, each wine was awarded the Double Gold Medal (two of only 36 awarded). All of us from the Engelbrecht/Els team congratulate Coenie on this great achievement!

*Syrah and Shiraz both come from the same grape varietal and, for all intensive purposes, produce the same wine. Some winemakers do differentiate between the two in winemaking style, Syrah being more of the old-world, elegant style and Shiraz being more of a new-world, bold style.