Raats Family WInes – specialists for Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc

Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc are the great passion of the Raats Family Wines and present the heart of the wine production of the winery. The family business has specialized on those two grape varieties and creates wines on which the ancient vineyards of Stellenbosch clearly have left their mark – and with great success since nowadays Raats is one of the leading producers of these grape varieties in the New World. The foundation stone for it was laid in the year 2000 when Bruwer Raats founded the winery together with his brother Jasper. When the latter moved on due to professional reasons, the father Jasper Senior helped out and after he passed away Bruwer´s cousin Gavin stepped in as viticulturist and winemaker in the year 2010 – therefore, Raats is and remains a family business.

Wines with star quality Punktzahl

The team invested a lot of time to find the best location for Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc. “The best soil for Chenin Blanc is undoubtedly the one in Stellenbosch”, Bruwer Raats said. The grapes are come from the 25 years old vines and grow 250 meters above the sea level – perfect conditions for an extraordinary wine that is produced with the greatest care and best expert´s report and which mirrors its South African terroir. All the effort pays off and in the year 2018 the winery went down in the history of John Platter Wine Guides: Five out of seven wines received the highest rating with five stars, a further wine was narrowly behind them with “Highly recommended”. This has not been achieved in just one year by any winemaker before. No wonder that Raats has been elected as the “Winery of the Year”.

New paths with the BVintners Range

Amongst the wines rewarded with five stars is also the red wine blend MR de Compostella. The creation of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec and Cabernet Franc was created from the cooperation of Bruwer Raats and his friend and colleague Mzokona Mvemve. Its name is based on a constellation of stars which with every little star contributes to make the galaxy a little more spectacular. The blend is also something special. Every vintage of the elegant red wine distinguishes itself from the other because on the final composition Bruwer Raats and Mzokona Mvemve decide during a blind tasting. Every single wine is evaluated with points and the grape variety which receives the highest number of points gets the biggest share of the blend – a recipe that already been successful in over ten vintages. In the year 2014 Bruwer and Gavin created with the BVintners Range a new collection for which they had worked together with partners of the wine industry since the grapes for these wines do not come from own vineyards but from various locations that are best suited to each grape variety. In this manner, Raats combines old traditions and innovative methods. Furthermore, he intervenes only minimally in the process of formation of the wines so that the vineyard can tell its story and the fruit character of the vines can develop. Today the BVintners line is an award-winning collection shaped by the terroir that unites the past and the present and gives a little foretaste of the future.