From the moment I met Jeremy Walker at a hotel in Camps Bay, Cape Town, in 2017, I knew he was the one with whom I would one day produce The Harp. I admired him, and had great respect for his uncompromising approach to winemaking at his wine estate in the Helderberg, Stellenbosch, a philosophy built on three principles: traditional, handcrafted, and unhurried. His wines are released only once they have reached optimal maturity after extended years in barrel.

In spring of 2022, I approached him with the goal to produce The Harp together. He asked me just one question: what style of wine did I want to produce? I told him, a wine with powerful structure, firm tannins, pronounced black plum and blackberry, nuanced sweet spice, juicy texture, vibrant refreshing acidity, and the capacity for great longevity.

He offered me carefully selected barrel samples, which I meticulously blended to craft what would become The Harp Red Blend 2017.

Our pursuit to craft a truly exceptional South Africa wine inspired us to produce The Harp Red Blend 2017. Like the harp - one of the oldest and complex orchestral instruments, capable of producing music of elegance, depth, and beauty - this wine is a complex composition of some of the world's most celebrated grape varieties; Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petit Verdot.

It oozes complexity, yet has elegance, depth and beauty, with powerful structure, firm tannins, pronounced black plum and blackberry, nuanced sweet spice, juicy texture, vibrant refreshing acidity, and the capacity for great longevity.

The vineyards for the grapes of The Harp Red Blend 2017 are nestled in the coastal area of Stellenbosch, where the cool southerly summer sea breezes from False Bay bring balance and finesse. The Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard is on the southwest-facing slope of the Simonsberg Mountains, where cooler temperature slows the ripening process, allowing extended hang time and intensifying flavour. The Merlot and Petit Verdot are grown on the lower, mineral-rich slopes of the Helderberg Mountains, contributing depth and complexity to the blend.

The grapes for The Harp Red Blend 2017 were hand-harvested into lug baskets (+/- 18 kg per basket), and meticulously sorted before destemming, then hand-sorted again between the destemmer and crusher. About half of the berries were left whole during crushing and then transferred to open fermenters. During fermentation which lasted 7 to 16 days on the skins, the must was manually punched down 4 to 6 times per day. After fermentation, the wine was drawn off and gently pressed in traditional wooden basket presses. Free-run and press wine were blended and racked to 225-litre barrels, where malolactic fermentation took place.

To clarify the wine, careful barrel-to-barrel and barrel-to-tank rackings were performed, without any filtration prior to bottling. The wine was refined using natural settling and racking alone, a slow and gentle process that avoids fining agents, centrifuges or filters, allowing the wine to express its character naturally.

The wine matured in individual French oak barrels, a proportion of first, second and third fill for over 28 months, allowing it to develop rich texture, complexity, and depth.

In February 2023, I began blending 49% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, and 20% Petit Verdot from the barrel samples to craft the precise style I envisioned for The Harp Red Blend 2017. Over the next seven months, Jeremy sent me tasting samples regularly, allowing me to fine-tune the blend until it perfectly matched the style I envisioned. In September, we racked and combined the seven selected barrels into a stainless-steel tank to create the final blend. After a period of natural settling, the wine was transferred into the stainless-steel bottling tanks, flowing by gravity through a cartridge filter. A limited release of 2,014 bottles of The Harp Red Blend 2017 was then made available.

On 14th December 2023, I launched The Harp Red Blend 2017 to an audience of wine professionals, winemakers, my fellow sommeliers, and friends during a seated blind tasting at Culture Wine Bar on 103 Bree Street, Cape Town. Later that evening, I hosted a bar takeover - an open tasting to the public - where guests had the opportunity to taste The Harp Red Blend 2017 alongside me behind the bar.