JASPER RAATS WINES

The Story of Jasper Raats Wines

Poetic wines with old world elegance. This entire collection is single vineyard wines.

Jasper Raats is the cellar Master of Longridge wine estate but he also has his own passion for creating wines that are not always run of the mill.

He is not scared to push traditional boundaries.

The wine making process of the Jasper Raats collection is distinctive in character; the grapes are terroir driven and epitomises the micro climate of the single vineyard from where they originate. His wines are created from small pockets of individual vineyards especially selected by Jasper. His personality is evident in the wines, where he uses techniques and produce styles that are sometimes a-typical to the cultivar.

The Jasper Raats Collection makes a statement and will leave a lasting memory on the drinker.

WORLD CLASS WINE MAKER

Jasper Raats is the shareholder, cellar master and managing director of Longridge Wine Estate, as well as partner in Vigneron Consulting, an international consulting business. The consultancy shares valuable knowledge to a select group of clients, particularly focusing on organic and biodynamic viticulture and oenology. In fact, it was through this consulting business that his relationship with Longridge first started.

Jasper has established himself as one of the most talented winemakers in South Africa and first gained prominence for wines he created in New Zealand. In 2003, he started working as viticulturist and winemaker at New Zealand’s Clos Henri in the Marlborough region, developing a new vineyard and making wine for French Company, Henri Bourgeois. During this period, he also started Koru Wines, which became one of New Zealand’s top and most expensive wines.

His international experience includes working in Burgundy, Pouilly Fume, Sancerre and in Napa and Sonoma under Pierre Seillan, the genial French creator of Vérité Wines.