Meet our cellar master

Authentic, passionate, and attuned to the terroir she grew up around are just three of many fine qualities Swartland-born winemaker Alecia Boshoff brings to multi-award-winning Piekenierskloof Wines.

Since joining the Citrusdal-based cellar in December 2022, Alecia set to harvest all Mother Nature captured in white and red berries to create and ultimately bottle wines worthy of carrying the coveted Piekenierskloof name.

With each new vintage and varietal gaining a growing fanbase locally and worldwide, Piekenierskloof Wines’ accolades continue to keep pace, something the family-owned producer looks to respond to with an even more significant investment in delivering constantly worthy wines.

As with each new vintage, Piekenierskloof Wines’ proud new Cellar Master and winemaker is committed to staying true to its rich heritage while allowing each varietal to deliver its full potential.

Authentic, passionate, and attuned to the terroir she grew up around are just three of many fine qualities Swartland-born winemaker Alecia Boshoff brings to multi-award-winning Piekenierskloof Wines.

Qualified

“I grew up on a farm where my grandfather grew and harvested Grenache noir, Chenin Blanc and Cinsault Bush Vines, and that’s what drove my passion for winemaking and also my curiosity around the history of these exceptional vines,” Alecia shares. “One of the many reasons I was drawn to Piekenierskloof was the opportunity to work with their old vines, some planted in 1962.”

Forward-thinking

“Our new style wines are more elegant, pure, and fruit driven. If you go back in history, many South African winemakers focused on getting as much as possible out of the grapes because we all wanted to make bold, intensely flushed, tannic-heavy wines,” she contextualises. “Back then, the focus was on maximising the wine’s ageing potential over time, not necessarily creating something more elegant and more immediately accessible.”

“Very early in my career as a winemaker, I was committed to creating exactly the opposite, as has been the focus at Piekenierskloof for many years, too,” Alecia points out. “I remember being at wine competitions back then, and my approach affronted the previous generation winemakers. They would comment on, not critique my wine, but it was abundantly clear their stance was towards tradition rather than innovation, everything I championed then and do today. Words like, it’s too clean, too light, were not uncommon,” she recalls with a smile. “I started working with older barrels many years ago, and then the trend changed towards older barrels, less oak, more elegant, fruitier wines, and that had been and remains my approach.”

Character aside, it’s lovely to see the world finally open to that idea embraced locally and globally today, all to the collective benefit in accolades, but most importantly in appreciation for a considered, respectful approach to winemaking.

Home is where the heart is

Bringing it back to Piekenierskloof, Alecia is quick to acknowledge the source. “It’s easy to make great wines here, if only because they are balanced, having successfully survived many decades of climate change and other challenges. The bottom line is you don’t have to do much on the wine side; you treat them respectfully and don’t overwork it. Ultimately, keep it as simple as possible, and then you have great wine that will age and improve over time.”

Upping the ante

With its rich pedigree well established, Alecia is incredibly well supported. Still, it’s beholden on this heavily invested local to step up and take Piekenierskloof Wines into new yet unchartered waters, free of water wings. “Luckily for me,” Alecia admits, “I have a vintage or two to earn the trust of those that test and those that taste all that we produce,” she shares with a smile.

“Stylistically, what brought me to Piekenierskloof, was a meeting of minds. That which the cellar brings and the intent that I must support and inject new possibility, aligned in pushing boundaries, all whilst staying true to the source.”

“At the end of the day, it returns to the grapes,” Alecia adds. “When you put the glasses on the table, especially with the latest vintage, the wines speak for themselves. If the quality is there, and the conditions in harvesting are correct, the wine presents perfectly. I am merely the instrument, the conductor if you will, to champion Mother Earth’s home.”

“I’m not the magician; I am merely the middleman, the translator between Earth and enjoyment.”

Alecia’s ambitions differ little from the farms where she works the vines. “Oddly, the less I do, the better for us all,” she smiles with confident insight few have. “Our grapes are so versatile that I consider many different styles when producing great wine that express naturally.”

“Secondly, I have worked with a diverse range of vines over the past 23 years, and it always comes back to the vineyards.

“At Piekenierskloof, we have bush vines and high-altitude vineyards, so it’s the perfect microclimate to produce beautiful fruit,” she adds. “Smaller berries produce more concentrated flavours, and with many of the blocks grown on virgin soils, that means they are ripe for an organic approach, something I intend investing in and fostering into the future.”

Technically distinct

“I have analysed the Piekenierskloof fruit and compared it against Swartland fruit, and I have found that the former is decidedly distinct in its makeup,” Alecia points out. “The Ph is naturally lower, coupled with higher acidity, which helps to preserve the wines in the long run.”

Approach is everything

Piekenierskloof, as with all premium cellars, considers many options when extracting what the soil has fed. Besides treating the grapes with respect and not overworking them, along with deciding whether to employ skin contact or barrel ferment, every step is meticulously planned and executed.

Harvest time

Before that happens, calculating when the optimal time is to pick can make or break a vintage. “Every winemaker is looking to find the optimal time to relieve the vines of their bounty,” Alecia admits. “So, this year, I have already done some trials, and in future years I am inquisitive about continuing to respect the overall process, but I am equally keen to pilot different approaches to delivering what the market is keen to consume.”

Democratic

“At the end of the day, our approach is minimum interference to allow the grapes to speak for themselves,” Alecia shares. “We want our wines to present and celebrate the personality of the place that produces it.”

The road ahead

Never a cellar to rest on its legacy awarding-winning success, the investment in respecting tradition and terroir while responding to and teasing palates with carefully considered wines is Piekenierskloof’s commitment, one that rewards from the cellar to each bottle and glass enjoyed.

As things change, so they stay the same – and in the context of Piekenierskloof Wines, their legacy rules, championed by new generations of pioneering winemakers who orchestrate, not dictate, what the land gives them.

And from that, exceptional results continue to abound.