“We’ve come a long way over the years” declares Johan Malan, cellar master of Simonsig, the Stellenbosch cellar which pioneered Kaapse Vonkel, the first bottle-fermented sparkling wine in South Africa in 1971. 

In the early days we first had to find a proper champagne bottle to get Consol to make the mould”. Five decades on, Simonsig is a leading brand of Méthode Cap Classique – four-time winner of the Amorim MCC Challenge since 2002, most recently as best MCC producer in 2017.

At a tasting to celebrate winning both best MCC producer, the Rosé and Blanc de Blanc categories at the MCC challenge 2017, media were treated to vertical flights of winning vintages of Kaapse Vonkel from 1999 to 2015 and Cuvée Royale from 2005 to 2012. Johan says, “These wines age beautifully. The first Kaapse Vonkel we made sold for R3 per bottle, and was the most expensive wine made in South Africa at the time! My father Frans said, ‘If we ever drown let it be in deep waters!” In 2018 Simonsig celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of its first wine vintage made in 1968.

“The wine tells you how much dosage is good for it – and the recent vintages are our driest ever with the lowest dosage. My Eureka moment in making MCC came at a tasting in Champagne in 1997 – when I was blown away by the fruity character of the base wine. At Simonsig we started picking our Chardonnay and Pinot Noir later and riper. Adding Pinot Meunier was another big learning curve. We pick it earlier for tight acidity. It takes time to develop in the tank – and matures quicker compared to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. It mostly goes into non-vintage blends in France.” While Kaapse Vonkel expresses the primary flavours of the grapes, Cuvee Royale develops secondary and tertiary bottle-age character, taking years to express its full potential”.