Klippenkop Syrah
£11.99
£15.99 per litre · incl. 20% VAT
In Stock — 6 bottles available
Black pepper, brambly berries and a whisper of vanilla, this is everyday Shiraz with proper Cape character. Grown on lime-rich Robertson soils and gently oaked, it's the kind of midweek red that punches well above its price. Pour it with a Sunday roast or a Tuesday-night steak and watch it disappear.
Not for sale to persons under 18. Adult signature required on delivery.
UK wide delivery
Expert curated
Our Verdict
We keep coming back to this one because it delivers exactly what an everyday Shiraz should: pepper, fruit, a bit of warmth, and no fuss. At under twelve quid, there's nothing else in our South African range that gives you this much Robertson character for the money. It's the bottle we recommend when someone asks for a Cape Shiraz to drink, not to think about, perfect for braai nights, slow-cooked stews, or simply Tuesday on the sofa. If you enjoy this and want to push the boat out, the rest of the Klippenkop range is worth exploring too.
Tasting Notes
Crushed black pepper leads the nose, edged with warm cinnamon and clove, the kind of spice profile that tells you instantly this is Syrah, not some softer cousin. Behind the pepper, brambly red berries and ripe mulberry build the fruit core, with vanilla from the oak woven in rather than bolted on. The palate is full-bodied but unforced, with enough fruit weight to carry the savoury spice through a long, gently warming finish.
Crushed Black Pepper
That unmistakable Syrah peppery lift on the nose, fresh, aromatic, and the first thing you'll notice in the glass.
Brambly Red Berries
Wild raspberry and bramble fruit tangle with deeper mulberry richness, giving the wine its generous, satisfying core.
Cinnamon & Clove
Warm baking spice threads through the aromatics, lending complexity without ever tipping into heaviness or sweetness.
About This Wine
Here's a wine that proves you don't need to spend big to drink well. Klippenkop's Syrah comes from the Robertson Wine Valley, a stretch of the Western Cape where lime-rich Karoo and shale soils give red wines an unmistakable backbone, bright, peppery, and full of life. It's classic South African Shiraz: generous without being heavy, savoury without losing the fruit.
Pour a glass and you'll find freshly cracked black pepper on the nose, lifted by warm cinnamon and clove, with brambly red berries and ripe mulberry underneath. A gentle hand with oak, eighty percent French, twenty percent American, six to eight months, adds a soft vanilla edge without ever stealing the show. It's full-bodied but easy-drinking, the sort of red that suits the occasion rather than dominating it.
This is a brilliant midweek bottle and an even better dinner-party pour. Try it with a slow-cooked lamb shoulder, a peppered ribeye, or a hearty venison stew when the British weather turns. It'll happily handle a tomato-rich pasta or a Sunday roast just as well.
A reliable, characterful Cape Shiraz at a price that makes case-buying easy. Delivered to your door anywhere in the UK, and a friendly introduction to South African Syrah for anyone who's been curious to try one.
Food Pairing
This is a Sunday roast wine through and through. The peppery spine cuts through fatty roast beef beautifully, while the fruit depth handles a slow-braised lamb shank or a rich oxtail stew without breaking a sweat. Venison loves the savoury edge. For something simpler, try it with a peppered ribeye or a generous bowl of beef ragù over pappardelle.
- —Roast beef with horseradish and Yorkshire puddings
- —Slow-braised lamb shank with rosemary
- —Peppered ribeye steak
- —Venison casserole with juniper
- —Beef ragù pappardelle
How to Serve
Temperature
Cool room temperature. If it's been sitting somewhere warm, pop it in the fridge for fifteen minutes before pouring.
Decanting
No need to decant, but half an hour open in the bottle, or a quick swirl in the glass, helps the pepper and spice aromatics lift and the vanilla settle into the fruit.
Glass
A standard red wine glass with a decent bowl gives the peppery aromatics room to gather and rise.
Cellaring
Best enjoyed within three to five years of vintage. Store on its side somewhere cool, dark, and stable if you're holding it for a few months.
Behind the Wine
Robertson sits inland from the cooler coastal Cape, and Syrah here lives between two extremes, warm, sun-drenched days and surprisingly cool nights drawn down from the Langeberg mountains. That swing is the secret. It lets the grapes ripen to full black-fruited generosity while holding onto the bright acidity and peppery lift that defines proper Syrah. Controlled irrigation keeps the berries small and concentrated, and harvest comes in late summer once the fruit has built genuine depth without tipping into jamminess.
Ageing Potential
Made for drinking now and over the next three to five years from release. The oak is well integrated and the fruit is generous and ready, this isn't a cellar candidate, it's a wine to pull off the rack whenever a midweek roast or a steak night calls.
The Land
The vines sit in deep Karoo and shale soils shot through with lime, an unusual base for Shiraz, and one that lends the wine its lift and freshness. The terrain is hilly and well-drained, which keeps the roots working hard, and small berry size from careful irrigation packs flavour into every grape that makes it to the press.
The Winemaking
Fruit is picked at full ripeness and fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel at 28°C for nine days, warm enough to coax out colour and structure, controlled enough to protect the fresh berry character. Ageing then splits across two oak traditions: eighty percent French oak for restraint and subtle spice, twenty percent American oak for that softer vanilla warmth. Six to eight months in barrel is enough to integrate the wood without burying the fruit underneath it.
The Western Cape Region
Le Domaine draws its fruit from vineyards scattered across the Western Cape, from coastal sites cooled by Atlantic breezes to warmer inland slopes, all planted between 50 and 300 metres above sea level. This broad sourcing is deliberate. By blending components from different microclimates, the cellar builds a consistent house style that balances the crisp acidity of cooler sites with the ripe generosity of warmer ones. It's the Western Cape's extraordinary diversity captured in a single glass.
About the Producer
Klippenkop
Klippenkop is one of those labels that quietly gets on with the job of making good, honest Cape wine, and that's exactly why we like it. The name comes from the Afrikaans for a rocky outcrop, a "klip" and "kop", and if you've driven through Robertson you'll know the hills it's named for: sun-baked, limestone-flecked, rising out of the Breede River valley like the backbone of the whole region.
Rather than being built around one estate or one winemaker's ego, Klippenkop draws its fruit from a co-operative of growers across Robertson, a region better known among South Africans than it is here in the UK, but one that deserves far more attention. The soils are lime-rich, the sunshine reliable, and the grapes ripen fully and evenly, which is precisely what you want for wines that are meant to be poured on a Tuesday as happily as a Saturday.
There's nothing showy about the range. A Chenin Blanc that's fresh and food-friendly, a Syrah with proper peppery grip, and a Pinotage that does what good Pinotage should: bright cherry and plum fruit up front, that familiar smoky, mocha undertone underneath. These are wines built to be enjoyed rather than analysed, and that's a genuine skill in itself. Plenty of producers can make one exceptional bottle. Fewer can make consistently good, reliably enjoyable wine, vintage after vintage, at a price that doesn't ask you to think twice.
We stock Klippenkop because it fills a real gap: an entry point into South African wine that doesn't sacrifice character for accessibility. If you're new to Pinotage and not sure where to start, or you want a Chenin Blanc for a weeknight dinner without overthinking it, this is where we'd point you. It's also a lovely, low-pressure introduction for anyone curious about the Cape, or a straightforward, unfussy bottle to send someone who just wants a proper taste of South Africa. Delivered across the UK, it's Robertson in a glass: sunny, direct, and entirely without pretension.