The ‘Little Dragon’ Returns: South Africa’s Kleine Draken Winery

By Elizabeth Kratz

The original Kleine Draken homestead purchased by Mendel Kaplen, z"l, in 1983.

Israel Tzion, the proprietor of Kleine Draken Wines, is bringing a historic Western Cape South African kosher winery back to worldwide distribution. Originally built in the Drakenstein mountain range in the Cape Winelands, the name Kleine Draken is Dutch for “little dragon.” While thereare several other kosher wineries currently making wines in South Africa, Kleine Draken is special as it was the first kosher winery ever established in the country. The winery was envisioned and established by the well-known philanthropist and industrialist Mendel Kaplan, z”l, who passed away in 2009.

“South Africa started wine growing in the late 1600s by French Protestant settlers who followed the Dutch to the Western Cape,” said David Kaplan, Mendel’s son. “These settlers had experience in winemaking and they brought their varieties as well. These wines became quite famous in Europe, and one so well-known that it was even considered a favorite of European kings and monarchs, from Frederick the Great to Napoleon Bonaparte. The wine industry thus has been, for at least 360 years, a major component of the Western Cape’s agriculture.

“Even today in South Africa, it’s difficult to find non-South African wines in liquor stores,” David Kaplan continued. “My father said, ‘How can there be no kosher winemaking in such a major winemaking country? No one is making kosher wine.’

“Wine is necessary in the Jewish world. If you are getting married in the Jewish world, or having a brit or any simcha in South Africa, generally there is an Orthodox rabbi in attendance and a need for this. So there was a market for this, but no local supplier,” David Kaplan explained.

“In 1983 [my father, Mendel] bought a little farm in a place called Paarl. The farm was initially developed in 1693 but the farmstead was built in the 1750s. The winemaker was a non-Jewish Afrikaans-speaking classically trained winemaker, who had a mashgiach who would follow the winemaker’s instructions, and made mevushal wines, without really knowing what it meant. He explained it as ‘flash pasteurization.’ To his classically trained mind, this was a ‘disaster’ or an ‘abomination’ but it ended up stabilizing the young white wines, which was primarily what the winery made.”

The winery was sold by the family a few years after Mendel passed away. The homestead and farm are no longer held by the winery, but at that time, in 2009, there were quite a few kosher winemakers working in the region and the need for a boutique winery making just 120,000 bottles annually seemed less pivotal to communal life in South Africa. Today, there are even more distributed to the U.S., including Essa, Cape Jewel and J. Folk.

Tzion, the new owner who purchased Kleine Draken from a previous buyer, explained that the cellar is still in the Western Cape, specifically in the Swartland region, most famous for its white wines. “We do, however, source our red grapes from the Stellenbosch and Paarl areas where they specialize in the red varieties,” he said.

“We rent a portion of the cellar and keep the tanks kosher all year round—we source the grapes from various regions in the Western Cape that are best suited to the particular variety of wines we are producing, for example white wines from the local region. The red grapes from Stellenbosch as well as gewürztraminer, come from a region over 100 miles from the cellar.”

All the white wines are made in steel tanks. The cabernet sauvignon is kept with wood staves for a minimum six months. The upcoming 2025 merlot will also be kept on wood. Pinotage and shiraz are produced in steel tanks with no wood.

Pinotage is a red wine grape that is South Africa’s signature variety, said Tzion. He explained that it was cultivated in South Africa in 1925 by Abraham Izak Perold, the first professor of viticulture at Stellenbosch University. It typically produces deep red varietal wines with smoky, bramble and earthy flavors, sometimes with notes of bananas and tropical fruit. My experience tasting the Kleine Draken Pinotage 2024 was definitely along these lines, with the initial note being of smoke or even diesel fuel. For those who are fans of Alsatian or German rieslings, this reminded me of a red wine version of a high-end aged riesling.

“Perold was attempting to combine the best qualities of the robust hermitage with pinot noir, a grape that makes great wine but can be difficult to grow,” said Tzion. “Perold planted the four seeds from his cross in the garden of his official residence at Welgevallen Experimental Farm.”

The majority of the world’s plantings of pinotage is found in South Africa, where it makes up just 6% of the vineyard area but is considered a symbol of the country’s distinctive winemaking traditions. It is a required component (30%-70%) of “Cape blends.”

“Here it is made into the full range of styles, from easy-drinking quaffing wine and rosé to barrel-aged wine intended for cellaring,” said Tzion. “It is also made into a fortified ‘port-wine’ style, and even a red sparkling wine. A white Pinotage wine is now being produced by a small number of winemakers in South Africa.”

The grape is naturally high in tannins, which can be tamed with limited maceration time, but reducing the skin contact can also reduce some of the mulberry, blackberry and damson fruit character that pinotage can produce. Some winemakers have experimented with letting the grapes get very ripe prior to harvest followed by limited oak exposures as another means of taming the more negative characteristics of the grape while maintaining its fruitiness. Newer clones have shown some potential as well.

In recent years South African winemakers have experimented with producing pinotage in a lighter style, picking grapes earlier for lower sugar and using whole bunches in fermentation to increase the acidity, a style more similar to the parent grape, pinot noir.

During the Jewish Link Wine Guide tasting season, I had the pleasure of tasting five Kleine Draken wines, which were the Brut Rosé 2024, the Chenin Blanc 2024, the Chardonnay 2023, the Cabernet Sauvignon 2024 and the Pinotage 2024. All of these wines are meant for early drinking and are priced under $20.

The Brut Rosé 2024 had a bit of residual sugar and was not a cap classique or méthode champenoise wine; it certainly seemed to have had carbonation added to it after the winemaking was finished, similar to a delicious California bubbly wine made by Covenant Winery.

While I do enjoy many South African and other hot-climate chenin blancs, including Israeli ones made in the Negev, the 2024 version of Kleine Draken’s wine was slightly off-balance with low acidity and muted aromas; it was possibly not fully ready for drinking, perhaps because of its recent bottling or bottle shock from its rush over many oceans to arrive in time for tasting. However, the Chardonnay 2024 had beautiful aromas of pear, apples and fresh tropical fruits. This was definitely a classic New World chardonnay and will be a wonderful wine to enjoy outside in the summertime.

The Pinotage 2024 was the most fascinating wine of the bunch. With aromas of roasted meat, smoke, and some dark fruit, the wine had light tannins but was in excellent balance. This wine is not one to buy without tasting first. I recommend buying one for the experience, and if you love it as I did, go ahead and buy the case. I guarantee not everyone will agree with me on this, but that’s OK. Wines are meant to be enjoyed and no one can tell another person what they will or will not enjoy.

The most popular wine of the tasting was the Cabernet Sauvignon 2024. At 12% alcohol, the grapes were clearly picked early to preserve the fruit aromas and keep the sugar levels low. It is an excellent cabernet from a hot-climate country, showing notes of red fruits and a bit of cherry pith on the finish.

Kleine Draken does not currently have a distributor in the United States, but with such a rich history and such historic grapes made in these globally important wine regions, the wines are certainly worth seeking out.