The Cape just held its first amphora festival. Clay is a craft again
More than 30 Western Cape wineries poured clay-vessel wines at Lourensford on 29 August. Portugal’s amphora-festival founder and Fontodi’s Manetti family were in the room.
A festival is a proof. If a niche can fill one room with bottles, it is no longer a footnote.
South Africa’s first Amphora Wine Festival ran on Saturday 29 August, 10:00 to 14:00, at Lourensford Wine Estate in Somerset West. Wine Machinery Group hosted. More than 30 Western Cape wineries poured wines fermented or aged in clay. Visitors could buy from the tables.
Clay is older than the barrel. Amphorae fermented, aged and stored wine for centuries, then steel and oak took the floor. Winemakers came back to terracotta because clay lets air in slowly and does not add vanilla. Texture, purity, a sense of place: that is the claim.
The Cape has been quietly in that movement for about a decade. Saturday was the first time the country put the bottles in one place and called it a festival.
Two guests marked the room. Pedro Ribeiro founded Portugal’s Amphora Wine Festival and owns Herdade do Rocim. Federico Manetti’s family has made terracotta for generations; they make the Manetti amphorae, and Fontodi, their Chianti house, was represented.
Talks ran beside the pours: history of the vessel, how clay is made, what it does to style, why people returned to it.
Tickets were public, on Webtickets. The day was short. The point was not a museum. The point was that clay on the Cape is now a craft with enough wines to stand together.
Mini-concept: a first festival is not a revival speech. It is a headcount of bottles.
A flavoured can has no clay. These wines spent time in terracotta, then in one room in Somerset West.
Remember: 30+ Cape wineries poured amphora wines at Lourensford on 29 August.
Source: Agri News