Sustainable Winemaking
The unique meso-climate produces grapes of concentrated fruit and excellent structure. The various heights of our North-East facing vineyards ensure ripening at different times, allowing each vineyard block to be hand-harvested at optimum ripeness. Around the Simonsberg vineyards have been cultivated and wine made for over three centuries. The premium quality of the Simonsberg wines is proved by an array of awards.
At harvest, we look for fully matured grapes. We then handle them with extreme care, gently moving them into the winery, where the whites are destemmed and pressed. Fermentation takes place in stainless steel tanks.
After careful selection the red grapes are fermented the traditional way in open fermenters with regular manual punch downs and pump overs for 10-12 days. After an extended maceration before pressing and a settling the red wines are gently fed via gravity into our underground barrel maturation cellar, to be aged for 12-18 months in small oak barrels, where they undergo malolactic fermentation.
We try to make wine in the most traditional and natural way while using the most advanced preserving technologies. We try to maximize soft handling and to make the best of what mother nature gives us on this unique viticultural terroir – wines that reflect both the identity of the different grape varieties and the terroir.
Certification Seal
All the Ladybird Vineyard’s wine is certified by Sustainable Wine South Africa (SWSA) and a certification seal appears on each bottle.
Sustainable Wine South Africa (SWSA) is the alliance between the Wine and Spirit Board (WSB), the IPW scheme, the WWF-SA Conservation Champion programme and Wines of South Africa (WOSA). Together these organisations are driving the South African wine industry’s commitment to sustainable, eco-friendly production. Currently 94% of all producers in SA are certified sustainable.
The new Wine and Spirit Board seal guarantees that the wines have been sustainably produced according to their new guidelines and consumers are able to verify this on-line by entering the unique seal numbers on the bottle.
Ethical Trade
Ladybird Vineyards supports ethical trade and is accredited by WIETA.
The Wine and Agricultural Trading Association (WIETA) is a multi-stakeholder non-profit voluntary organisation which actively promotes ethical trade in the wine industry through training, technical assessment and audits to assess members’ compliance with its code of good practice.
Certified Organic
Ladybird Vineyards is organically certified by leading body Ecocert.
Our wines are suitable for vegans, vegetarians and pescatarians
The principal aim at Kanonkop is to make the best wine that we possibly can. Within these quality parameters we implement actions to minimise the use of certain additives and fining agents, with the aim of producing healthier wines.
For the past 10 years we’ve actively removed the use of animal-based additives for the fining processes that take place in the cellar. The work we do in the vineyards to deliver quality grapes, combined with the winemaking regime we follow, have allowed us to move away from using products like gelatine and albumin (egg white). Plant-based alternatives, like potato protein, are now being used for clarification and settlement purposes.
We have also done extensive research on tannin additions to minimise the use of sulphur as a protective agent.
This commitment has resulted that our wines can be enjoyed by vegans, vegetarians and pescatarians.