Leeu Passant

The Leeu Passant wines celebrate the rich history of South African wine. Using the Cape’s wine heritage dating back to the 17th Century as inspiration, the winery decided to deconstruct the venerable Cape wines of the 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s, retain their best component parts, and then reconstruct them in a modern, minimalist way, whilst at the same time respecting tradition.

The wines highlight how South African vineyards can make authentic, classic, and age worthy wines, which Leeu Passant is excited to honour with their own modern interpretation, incorporating several very special and old vineyards.

Looking for the best vineyard parcels in the Cape for these wines enables them to work with each grape variety in sites that are perfectly suited to them in terms of climate and soil. The wines are from leased vineyards in multiple regions (not only Franschhoek) so are aimed at expressing the Cape as a whole. The winemakers control the viticulture and the vines are mostly old.

Leeu Passant’s winemaking is focused on balanced intensity. They aim to bottle wines that have texture, freshness, structure and aromatic complexity. To achieve this, they make use of modern minimalist winemaking, which entails, for example, the use of indigenous yeast, no enzymes or tannins, but high levels of hygiene and a sound knowledge of malolactic fermentation etc.