The Fox & The Flamingo
⏳ Drinking Window
2023 - 2025
🍷 Vintage Profile
The 2023 growing season in the Western Cape featured cooler early spring conditions followed by intermittent late-season rains, which delayed ripening and naturally preserved high crisp acidity across early-harvested Pinotage blocks. This moderate heat accumulation allowed for lower potential alcohol while keeping skin maceration brief, maintaining the wine's signature pale copper hue and bright red-fruit profile. Currently drinking at its peak fresh window in 2026, the 2023 vintage delivers exceptional freshness and tension intended for immediate to short-term enjoyment.
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Grilled prawns, fresh summer salads, light sushi rolls
✨ Technical Specifications
The Fox & The Flamingo Rosé is a whimsical expression of South Africa's signature grape, Pinotage, crafted to capture a delicate balance between earthbound structure and vibrant, soaring freshness. The name itself conjures a playful fable of two unlikely companions—the cunning, grounded fox and the elegant, pink-hued flamingo—mirroring the wine's dual nature of savory complexity and bright, fruit-forward charm. Sourced from select vineyards in the Western Cape, the 2023 vintage benefited from a cooler growing season that allowed the grapes to develop intense aromatic profiles while retaining a crisp, electric acidity. Gently pressed to extract just a whisper of salmon-pink color, the juice was cool-fermented in stainless steel to preserve its pure, energetic notes of wild strawberry, pomegranate, and subtle floral undertones.
🍾 About the Producer
Black Elephant Vintners was established in Franschhoek in 2013, uniting former corporate financiers Kevin Swart and Raymond Ndlovu with experienced viticulturist and winemaker Jacques Wentzel. Operating from the boutique La Petite Vigne property, the winery playfully styles its founders as the 'rebels of the vine,' with its moniker derived from Swart ('black' in Afrikaans), Ndlovu ('elephant' in Zulu), and Wentzel ('the vintner'). Sourcing fruit from across the Franschhoek Valley floor up to the granitic mountain slopes, alongside parcels selected from cooler Coastal Region sites, the estate crafts expressive wines shaped by alluvial loam, decomposed granite, and distinct diurnal temperature swings. Winemaking prioritizes minimal intervention and varietal clarity, eschewing rigid conventions while honoring meticulous cellar craft. Signature bottlings include the crisp 'Two Dogs, a Peacock and a Horse' Sauvignon Blanc, traditional-method Cap Classique sparklers, and 'The Fox & The Flamingo,' a benchmark dry rosé vinified exclusively from free-run Pinotage juice to preserve delicate red-berry perfume and vibrant, saline acidity.
🍇 Grapes
Pinotage
🍷 ABV
12.5%