The Cutting

Viticulturist Daniel McDonald and partner winemaker Belinda van Eyssen launched The Cutting in 2018 on their Stonewell vineyard, bought by Daniel’s parents in his birth year of 1980 and planted in 1998. An initial resolve to remain grapegrowers was thwarted by the temptation to make their own wines, inspired by other winemakers (to whom they were selling) producing single-vineyard wines from the site. Belinda gained winemaking experience in her home town of Cape Town, as well as in Portugal, France, California and NZ. Vinification and maturation in French oak barrels are carried out in a micro-winery in a shed on site, 54m from the vineyard (‘10 seconds by tractor!’).  -TYSON STELZER