09-05-2025
South Africa's most exciting wines, vineyards and vintners
They called it a revolution. No walls were breached or regimes toppled, and the liquid spilt wasn't blood, it was red wine. But what red wine…
In the Noughties a bunch of young winemakers became enthused by the amazingly varied soils and altitudes of the Swartland, a large, hot swathe of South Africa's hinterland 45 minutes north of Cape Town. They found hitherto neglected vineyards (and planted others), fermented the grapes with naturally occurring yeasts and intervened as little as possible. The wines were so gorgeous that many people, like me, who had loved South African whites but few reds, were obliged to change their minds. And changing hearts and minds is, surely, the point of a revolution.
South Africa has been producing wine since the 1650s, but initially only in Constantia and Stellenbosch. By the time political isolation ended with apartheid, in the early 1990s, the co-operatives that had made more than 90 per cent of the country's wine, and focused primarily on quantity, were losing their power and quality-focused private wineries were appearing.
In 1999 the Swartland Revolution began when Eben Sadie set up Sadie Family Wines amid a sea of wheat. Soon he had company: young adventurers who, like him, had learnt from older makers and were ready to try doing things differently. Adi Badenhorst, white-bearded but boyish, has the energy and charm you need to create a bohemian oasis (complete with pizza oven on the shady veranda) in a place that looked, when he arrived, 'like the Gobi Desert'. His glorious wines include single-vineyard cinsaults and Raaigras, from the country's oldest grenache plot, which has a lovely violet note and a freshness that comes, he says, from the granite soils: 'Grenache is one of those grapes that listens to where it's planted.'
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The David & Nadia vineyard nearby is a very different operation: David Sadie (no relation) produces about 55,000 bottles in a winery the size of a pea. He has, as yet, no vineyards of his own. But judging from his citrus-pure, moreish chenin blancs and headily perfumed grenache-syrah blend, Elpidios, the work he puts into buying top-quality grapes is paying off.
Today there are about 30 wineries in the Swartland. Prices aren't the issue here, thanks to the weak rand — a top wine can cost about £60, with some under £30. But quantities are tiny. Most vines are untrellised, which allows the leaves to shade the fruit from the brutal sun, and these tousled bush vines are an important part of the region's wild beauty.
Yet its wines can be as sophisticated as the outstanding chenin and syrah trios by Chris and Andrea Mullineux, which showcase the different Swartland soils: iron, schist and (my favourite) granite, the red an elegant blend of black tea and red fruit.
Before heading further inland to Tulbagh, I dropped in on Callie Louw (although 'dropping in' hardly describes bumping miles up a dusty track). Louw's vines are bushier, the soil beneath them drier and the man who somehow farms them organically even more stubborn than his fellow revolutionaries. Porseleinberg is part of the Boekenhoutskloof group, and much of what Louw grows is for The Chocolate Block, a hugely popular Swartland blend. Porseleinberg itself is a superb single-vineyard syrah, its tobacco-leaf and blackberry notes a vindication of everything Louw believes about how to grow grapes on a wind-battered hillside.
• Swap Stellenbosch for this underrated South African wine region
At first sight, the perfect lawns and large-format artworks of the estate where Rudiger Gretschel makes Krone premium sparkling seem as different from Porseleinberg as tiny-production syrah is from South Africa's premium fizz. But Gretschel is just as serious about his amphora-aged and supremely elegant single-site blanc de blancs as Louw is about syrah. As for a wild element: Gretschel drives me north, up into the Citrusdal mountains, to his property, Swartberg Wingerde, which is so remote he has to deliver weekly groceries to his workers. He shows me bush vines planted in deep sand, which seems an unlikely home for them. But his Holism Grenache, with its notes of plum, spice and white pepper, is exceptional. It is, I realise, as I look out across these wild slopes towards the Atlantic, something more: revolutionary.
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By Jane MacQuitty
Dazzling prestige blanc de blancs chardonnay champagne with taut, intense citrus-blossom and almond elegance.£148,
Glorious greeny-gold, steely, stony chablis with a long lemony finish. A real charmer from northern Burgundy.£29.95,
Magnificent magnum from a tip-top walled vineyard, with lots of tangy umami and mineral oomph.£255,
Thrilling white burgundy from century-old vines, with soft, honeyed, floral, yellow-apple elegance.£85,
Bright and beautiful Aussie chardonnay bursting with mouthwateringly herbaceous, zingy, flinty fruit.£63.95,
