Morgenster Cabernet Franc 2021

At the foot of the Helderberg Mountains in Sommerset West, near the Atlantic Ocean, lies the Morgenster Winery. Although the winery can look back on 300 years of tradition, the Bertrand family has shaped the history of Morgenster for more than thirty years. Since 1975, the Italian textile manufacturer Giulio Bertrand has regularly visited South Africa several times a year to visit his company locations - and very quickly fell in love with the country and its people. First he bought a wildlife farm on the edge of Kruger National Park and after his retirement he spent two months each year in South Africa to escape the Italian winter. In 1992, Giulio Bertrand finally bought Morgenster, one of the gems of the Cape. With the help of Revel Fox, an architect from Cape Town, he restored the Manor House, built in 1786, and restored it to its former glory.

Bertrand then devoted himself to the hills behind the house, which reminded him of his home in Piedmont, Italy. Following his lifelong philosophy of producing only the best, he sought advice from experts. Their advice: Morgenster's terroir is perfect for growing red grape varieties and olives. The team around Winemaker Henry Kotze creates authentic wines that combine tradition and modernity - and you can taste that in every single bottle. The Premium Range, Single Variety Range and the Giulio Range bring together complex and elegant white wines and complex, soft red wines. The flagship is the Morgenster Estate Reserve, a classic, incredibly intense and fine red wine blend that perfectly reflects its terroir. Morgenster visitors have the opportunity to taste the wines and olive oils in the modern tasting room, located on the edge of a dam overlooking the mountains, and can choose from a variety of options.

Morgenster is not only known for its excellent, classic red wines, but also for its excellent extra virgin olive oils. While in Italy it was a natural course of action to grow wine and olives at the same time, this concept was unknown territory in South Africa at that time. Giulio Bertrand paved the way for the South African olive oil culture and brought the first olive oil under Morgenster's name onto the market in 1996. The collection around the well-known extra virgin olive oil is flanked by two further high-quality olive oils. For his services to the local olive oil industry, Bertrand received the award for his life's work from the SA Olive Association in August 2012. Since Giulio Bertrand's death in 2018, his daughter and granddaughter, Federica and Vittoria, have continued to run Morgenster – and with it Giulio's dream.