ANCESTRAL(E)… Oldest method of making sparkling wine, whereby the wine is bottled during the (single) fermentation process, before the completion of alcoholic fermentation. (Excerpt from Mini Wine Encyclopaedia on Top Wine SA)

Less involved, a shorter route to bottling than Champagne (France), Cava (Spain) or Cap Classique (South Africa). No second fermentation, and no dosage (addition of sugar-and-wine ‘liqueur’) after riddling and disgorging the yeast sediment, prior to putting a cork in the neck of the bottle.

Not many wine producers in the Cape have taken on the challenge of making bubbly this way, with local proponents including the Swartland’s AA Badenhorst, Stellenbosch’s Ken Forrester, Somerset West producer Metzer & Holfeld as well as the Paarl outfits Scali and Vondeling, whose Rurale from Chardonnay and Pinotage grown on the Voor Paardeberg farm was one of the first of its kind and stands out as most highly rated by the panels of experts in recent years.