Description
Current Vintage: 2026
Verjus is an ancient elixir made from green, unfermented wine grapes picked by hand when they are just starting to change colour on the vine. During this period of veraison the grapes are thinned to reduce the crop load on the vines for winemaking quality purposes. Even though we can see and smell and taste the impact of the thinning process in our beloved Tamboerskloof wines, simply leaving these perfect albeit unripe grapes lying in the vineyard feels wrong…
And so, back in 2014 our harvest on Kleinood Farm started much earlier, during veraison, when the thinned grapes were picked by hand and taken to the winery, to become the first-ever de Boerin Syrah Verjus.
Verjus is pronounced vair-ZHOO
Verjus is high in acid and low in sugar, giving it its signature tart taste. It’s complex, and has an intense fruity flavour and slight medicinal undertone to balance the acidic bite, making it much more delicate and elegant compared to vinegar or lemon juice. There is some chemistry behind it, too. Made from grapes, Verjus shares an acid-base with wine: tartaric acid. While lemons contain citric acid and vinegar contains acetic acid.
Our Verjus is made from Syrah grapes grown through precision viticulture on Kleinood Farm, so it also shares the characteristic tasting notes of the Kleinood Tamboerskloof Syrah: plum, blackberry, violets and spices.
HARVEST & BOTTLING
On Kleinood farm, during veraison, a selection of the best unripe Syrah grapes are handpicked before going into the winery to make de Boerin’s Verjus.
It is then bottled and labelled by hand. The vintage, the date of bottling and the number of each individual bottle is handwritten on the back label.
SERVING SUGGESTIONS
Enjoy Verjus ice cold as a refreshingly tart grape juice on a hot day, or pour over ice and add sparkling water.
Use in cocktails and homemade cool drinks as a fresh sour element.
In the kitchen, use in combination with de Boerin Extra Virgin Olive Oil to dress salads, marinade meat or to add a flavourful complexity to fish and poultry dishes. Use it for deglazing or in gazpacho.
In Medieval times, a common practice was to soak a piece of stale bread in verjus to thicken a stew.
For a light desert, serve Verjus sorbet sweetened with honey.
Keep refrigerated.
