The La Brune dream (French for brunette) was born when winemaker Nico Grobler fell in love with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir through a close friend and Vigneron Bruno Lorenzo of Domaine Lorenzin in Mercurey (Côte Chalonnaise Burgundy). Over decades of visits to Burgundy, educated Nico about finesse, elegance, perfume, restraint, purity, freshness and length of wines. This led to the creation of La Brune range – an exclusive Elgin cool climate range of wine that is built upon many small complexities to produce something truly intricate.
Nico and his wife, Christelle have been growing vineyard and making wine for 15 years. They have 2 daughters, Nicola and Lisa, who are very passionate about La Brune and love helping their parents in the vineyards and cellar.
Nico is a viticulturist with more than 15 years of experience in growing vineyard around South Africa. He has a big French influence with workin in Mercurey with Bruno Lorenzon and with well-known French viticulturist Prof Alain Deloire.
La Brune has access to some of the highest elevated Chardonnay vineyards in South Africa and has the honor of producing its Pinot Noir from one of the highest density vineyards at 10,000 vines per hectare (compared to South African average 3,300 vines per hectare) using 4 selected clones.
They believe in minimum intervention with traditional Burgundian winemaking methods are used to preserve the profile of the terroir. Custom made Burgundian barrels from the forest Pierre du Bourgogne made by Bruno Lorenzon together with Nico are used for the maturation process.
The strong connection between Nico and his vines with his unique winemaking philosophy gives birth to wines carrying the unique message from Elgin.
The Valley
The beautiful Elgin Valley is a cool climate and high inland plateau, completely surrounded by mountains, just 70km from Cape Town. It is rapidly gaining a reputation for the production of premium quality wines. The secrets of the Elgin Valley are slowly being unlocked. The range of wines are designed to be fresh, fruit driven, light and accessible with all the fundamentals of premium wine whilst still showcasing unique profile from Elgin Valley.
