South Africa · Franschhoek

Rickety Bridge Private Cellar

A historic Franschhoek estate between Dassenberg Mountain and the Franschhoek River, making a textured white blend and an oak-matured Shiraz.

The producer

Rickety Bridge Private Cellar stands in Franschhoek between Dassenberg Mountain and the Franschhoek River. Its name comes from a sleeper-built railway bridge that crossed the river; although the bridge was replaced in 1996, the name remained. The estate’s history reaches back to a 13 May 1797 land grant to widow Paulina de Villiers, who called the farm Paulina’s Drift.

Foundation Stone White 2020 shows the cellar’s most detailed wine story: early-picked fruit, whole-bunch fermentation with natural yeast, large oak foudres and ten months of separate maturation before blending. Led by Chenin Blanc with Roussanne, Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Nouvelle, it brings peach, mango, honey, floral notes and spice into a dry, full-bodied palate held lively by acidity. Rickety Bridge Shiraz 2020 follows a darker route, using skin contact and oak maturation for colour, tannin and savoury weight.

Known for

Foundation Stone White 2020, a dry Chenin-led white blend shaped by whole-bunch fermentation, natural yeast and large oak casks.

Notable facts

The story

From Paulina’s Drift to Rickety Bridge

On 13 May 1797, widow Paulina de Villiers received a quitrent grant for land in Franschhoek and called it Paulina’s Drift. The farm later passed to another female owner, who enlarged the property and planted 40,000 vines for wine and brandy production. Nearly two centuries later, the estate took its present name from an old sleeper-built railway bridge crossing the Franschhoek River beside the farm. In the late 1980s the crossing lent its name to the winery: Rickety Bridge. The bridge itself was replaced in 1996, while the name stayed above the cellar door and on the labels.

From the atlas

Rickety Bridge Private Cellar

An historic Franschhoek estate between Dassenberg Mountain and the Franschhoek River, with a white blend shaped by early-picked fruit, whole bunches and large oak casks.

At A Glance

The Producer

Rickety Bridge Private Cellar is a centuries-old wine estate in Franschhoek, where wine production sits alongside farm-style accommodation, a tasting centre and visitor facilities. The Crosbie family owns the winery, while the estate’s bottles carry a much older local history: Paulina’s Drift was the name given to the land in 1797, and Rickety Bridge recalls a crossing over the river that ran beside the farm.

The clearest wine thread runs through Foundation Stone White. Its 2020 blend is led by Chenin Blanc, with Mediterranean varieties bringing floral and spicy notes; early harvesting keeps acidity present while whole-bunch fermentation and large oak casks build body and a faint oak layer. It is a useful counterweight to Rickety Bridge Shiraz 2020, a red made with extended skin contact and oak maturation.

Place

Franschhoek supplies the physical frame: Dassenberg Mountain on one side, the Franschhoek River on the other. The river is more than a scenic marker here, since the old railway bridge crossing it eventually supplied the estate’s present name. In the bottle, Franschhoek appears not as a formal vineyard hierarchy in this evidence, but as the shared origin of an estate whose white blend can also draw fruit from Paarl and Elgin.

That broader sourcing changes Foundation Stone White’s role. Rather than presenting a single-site white, it combines Chenin Blanc, Roussanne, Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Nouvelle into one dry, full-bodied blend, then uses separate ageing before the final assembly. The result is a wine built from several grape voices and cellar decisions rather than a claim of one parcel’s character.

Soil And Site

The documented site markers are the mountain and river, not a named soil type or slope. No ground composition, altitude or exposure is supplied for the estate, so the physical setting is best read through the old river crossing and the farm’s position in Franschhoek rather than through invented mineral or geological language.

Story

The estate’s modern name arrived in the late 1980s, when an old sleeper-built railway bridge over the Franschhoek River became Rickety Bridge. The bridge itself was replaced in 1996, but the name stayed on the bottles and the estate. By the turn of the millennium, modern cooling systems had been installed and the cellar could handle 200 tonnes of grapes, bringing more temperature control to the processing of the fruit.

That cellar history is especially legible in the white blend. Cooling and controlled fermentation protect fruit and acidity; Foundation Stone White then spends time in older French oak barrels and a large oak cask, where oak can round texture without turning the wine into a heavily wooded style. The wine’s peach, mango, honey, spice and light-oak profile comes from this meeting of grapes, harvest timing and vessel choice.

Vineyards And Cellar

A later female owner expanded the farm and planted 40,000 vines for wine and brandy, placing vine cultivation at the centre of the property’s working life. The supplied material also identifies Rickety Bridge as an organic producer, although it does not set out enough vineyard detail to connect certification to a particular parcel, yield or harvest practice.

For Foundation Stone White, grapes are picked early to retain acidity. Whole bunches go into large oak foudres with natural yeast, leaving stems with the fruit during fermentation; that handling can support floral lift and spice while the large casks add texture more quietly than new small barrels. Each variety then matures separately for ten months before blending, preserving the distinct contribution of Chenin Blanc and the smaller Mediterranean components.

Rickety Bridge Shiraz 2020 takes a different cellar route. Its recorded skin contact extracts colour, flavour and tannin from the grape skins, while oak maturation adds another structural layer. That makes it the estate’s more red-fruited, tannic side beside the white blend’s acidity and broad texture.

Wines

The available named bottles show two useful directions. Foundation Stone White is a 2020 dry white blend: 46% Chenin Blanc, 22% Roussanne, 18% Grenache Blanc, 11% Viognier and 3% Nouvelle. Chenin supplies the largest share of body and ripe fruit, while Roussanne, Grenache Blanc and Viognier contribute floral and spicy detail. Short skin contact, fermentation in older 225-litre French oak barrels and a 2,500-litre oak cask, then ten months of separate maturation, give the finished blend weight and a restrained oak edge.

Rickety Bridge Shiraz 2020 is the red counterpart. The documented skin contact and oak maturation point toward deeper colour, tannin and oak seasoning rather than the white’s citrus-driven freshness and foudre-grown texture. Together, the pair show an estate working with both a layered white blend and a structured red, not a range defined by a single grape or one uniform cellar treatment.

In The Glass

Foundation Stone White opens with peach and mango, then moves toward honey, flowers, spice and a light oak note. On the palate it is full and rich, but early harvesting holds acidity in the wine, so the fruit does not simply spread into sweetness. Whole-bunch fermentation and time in foudre bring texture through the middle; the finish keeps fresh fruit, spice and oak in proportion.

The Shiraz follows a darker structural line. Skin contact puts tannin and colour into the frame, while oak maturation gives the red an additional savoury, woody contour. Where Foundation Stone White uses acidity to keep its broad body moving, Shiraz relies on tannin, fruit and oak to carry its weight through the finish.

A Bottle To Understand It

Choose Foundation Stone White 2020. It is a dry, full-bodied blend led by Chenin Blanc, with Roussanne, Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Nouvelle, and it gathers the estate’s most clearly documented winemaking decisions into one glass. Early-picked fruit preserves acidity; whole bunches and natural yeast ferment in large oak foudres; each component then spends ten months in oak before blending. Expect peach, mango, a touch of honey, flowers, spice and subtle oak, followed by a rich texture held in check by fresh acidity.

Anecdote

On 13 May 1797, widow Paulina de Villiers received a quitrent grant for land in Franschhoek and called it Paulina’s Drift. The farm later passed to another female owner, who extended the property and planted 40,000 vines for wine and brandy production. Nearly two centuries later, the estate took a different name from a physical feature beside the farm: an old sleeper-built railway bridge crossing the Franschhoek River. In the late 1980s, that crossing gave the estate the name Rickety Bridge. The bridge was replaced in 1996, but Rickety Bridge remained the name above the cellar door and on the wine labels.

Final Word

Rickety Bridge is easiest to hold in mind through one river crossing and one white blend: a Franschhoek estate whose name came from an old bridge, and whose Foundation Stone White turns early-picked grapes, whole bunches, natural yeast and oak casks into a broad, fresh, spicy glass.

Sources

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