The 2015 vintage of Vondeling flagship Rhone-style blend will be celebrating a new species of Paardeberg fynbos with a change in name from Erica to Monsonia.
Monsonia speciosa, is a rare and highly endangered flower indigenous to the Paardeberg. The common names include Butterfly Flower, Sambreeltjie, (little umbrella) and Slangblom (snake flower).
It’s named after Lady Anne Monson, great grandchild of King Charles II. Controversially, her first marriage was dissolved, due to the birth of an illegitimate child but she soon remarried Colonel George Monson of the Indian Military. She was known as a “remarkable lady botanist” and was instrumental in translating Linnaeus’s famous “Philosophia Botanica”. On her way to Calcutta, she visited the Cape of Good Hope and accompanied seasoned collector of South African plants, Carl Peter Thunberg, on several expeditions around the Cape. In 1774, he named the Monsonia species of plants after her.
The 2015 Vondeling Monsonia is a blend of 85% Shiraz, 6 % Mourvédre, 5% Grenache & 4% Carignan. It spent 18 months in 500 litre French oak barrels.
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