Rift Valley Winery, makers of Leleshwa Wine have unveiled a new look for their range of wines, owing to a growing taste for New Latitude Wines internationally. The Range includes the Michel Angelo Wine & Spirits Awards Gold recipient Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot Shiraz, the Sweet Red and a Rose. The Leleshwa series seeks to show the authentication of the wine’s deep Kenyan heritage.
The winery has in the last 5 years invested in new viniculture, infrastructure and different wine varietals with the aim of selecting varietals adaptable to the tropical Kenyan climate hence the name, New LatitudeWines. The winery that has grown from being a family hobby to making wines that are competitive in the global arena, defies the assumption that wine cannot come out of the tropics. They however acknowledge that they cannot produce the more traditional fuller bodied, high alcohol red wines. In turn, they promise to produce very good quality, crisp & fruity White and Rose wines plus light, fruity, berry reminiscent Red wines
The Rift Valley Winery aims at increasing the size of the vineyards to 70HA by 2017 from the current 35HA to increase production that current stands between 80,000 – 150,000 bottles annually. In addition to that, they seek to see additional investment go into the setting up a new winery in 2016. This move aims to meet a growing appetite of wines in the local and international markets.
Mbugua Ngugi, Managing Director, Rift Valley Winery insists that there is a need to educate our local market on the quality of Kenyan wine. Rift Valley Winery was founded 20 years ago by Pius Ngugi and is one of the subsidiaries of Kenya Nut Company –producer of Macadamia & Cashew nuts under the brand names Out of Africa, Nutfields and Nassu.