The winery in
South Africa is located 20 kilometres north of Cape Town and ten kilometres from the Atlantic Ocean. It belongs to the
Philadelphia Ward, which was only defined in 2004. Capaia was created from nothing, so to speak. In 1996, the German Alexander Baron von Essen had New Zealand soil researchers carry out around a thousand soil drillings here in order to determine the suitability for viticulture. Up to this time only wheat had been grown here. The soil consists of slate, volcanic rock and loam. In 1987, the Baron had founded the wine trading company Selection Alexander von Essen, based at Tegernsee, and now decided to produce wine himself. In 2000, he bought 140 hectares of land on the slopes of the 376-metre-high Koeberg and, using tremendous earth movements, had a dam built for artificial
irrigation and 60 hectares of vineyards planted. The Hungarian oenologist Tibor
Gál (1958-2005), who also worked for
Ornellaia, was recruited as a consultant. The former 50% share of the Italian
Antinori winery has now been bought back. The name Capaia results from this connection. This was formed from "Cap" and "aia" (last part of Ornellaia).
Gàl had 250,000 vines planted after precise analyses "which varieties for which soils". These are the red varieties Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot, and the only white variety Sauvignon Blanc. The vines come exclusively from the Bouvet vineyard in Bordeaux. Until 2002, a state-of-the-art winery was built with the latest technology. The heart of the winery are fermentation tanks made of 150-year-old French oak. Currently, there are eight of them with 8,000 litres each and 26 more with 5,000 litres capacity. As the harvest increases, others will naturally follow. The barriques also come from France. In addition, a Victorian manor house was renovated. The total investment cost amounted to a two-digit million Euro amount. The first harvest took place in February 2003, from which the second wine "Blue Grove Hill" was made, a Cabernet-Merlot blend aged for nine months in barriques. In 2004 a Sauvignon Blanc was bottled under the same label. The flagship is the "Capaia" cuvée of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot in Bordeaux style, aged for 15 months in barriques. The 2003 vintage then came onto the market in autumn 2004.
