These little Cabernet cuttings were stuck in the ground a few weeks ago and now they’re budding (it’s spring in South Africa). Next year they’ll be pulled up and supplied to the vineyard owner for replanting)

We have thousands of bits of it growing in our Stormhoek vineyards. Every Cabernet Sauvignon vine, in California, France, everywhere is a bit of the single, original Cabernet Sauvignon vine, wherever it was.

All grape vines are grown from cuttings. Each vine ripens hundreds of grapes each year and the average grape has a couple of seeds, but the seeds are never used, not ever.

No one knows how long ago the original Cabernet vine was chosen or where it was growing, perhaps 1000 years ago in France. And since then, every time we want to plant a vineyard we root the cuttings in a nursery block, get them growing and then plant them out a metre or so apart in a vineyard.