An Interview with Miles Mossop
If you paid a visit to the City of Oaks in the first week of February this year, you would have found yourself slap bang in the middle of the Harvest Parade. This colourful parade, filled with tractors, trucks, trailers and a whole lot of singing invites the people of the town to celebrate the beginning of the Harvest Season.
Now it is common to see tractors chugging through the streets of Stellenbosch, heavily laden with thousands of grape bunches to start their journey into becoming some of Stellenbosch’s most adored and world-renowned wines.
Many of these renowned wines are created from the vines in the Banhoek Valley where De Zeven Guest Lodge is located. We’ve asked one of the esteemed winemakers associated with the valley, Miles Mossop, to share with us his views about his selection process and this year’s harvest season.
After working at Tokara for 19 years, Miles Mossop decided to concentrate on his own brand and created Miles Mossop Wines in the Banhoek Valley. He continues to make his wine at Tokara, but likes to purchase his grapes from all over the Cape region. “I buy my grapes from all over. Most of my whites are brought in from the Swartland area close to Malmesbury and Riebeek Kasteel, it’s a lot drier out there,” he explains. “My whites are mainly Chenic Blanc dominated, and my reds are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot-dominated which I buy from all around Stellenbosch, including Limoenkloof.”
“The weather has been fairly stable since August last year, with hot days and rainfall in between. The overall impression for this year’s harvest is good!” he says enthusiastically. “We had a cool, relatively wet spring and summer, with warm days and rainfall in between so you get a lot of humidity, causing a lot of wet around the plants and increasing the chance of disease. However, farmers who farmed properly, and really paid attention to their vines are going to get really good quality!”
mM wines are named after his three children, Max, Saskia and Kika, each of which is an award-winning wine, completely unique with its own story to tell. These wines are created as naturally as possible, and the grapes are handled with the utmost care from vine to bottle.
All of us here at De Zeven Guest Lodge are looking forward to the fruit of Miles and his team’s labour. Especially knowing that our very own Limoenkloof vineyards had a part to play.
Feel like experiencing the exceptional Banhoek Valley together with its exceptional wines?
Share This Post