We enjoyed a delightful dinner at Warwick Estates, where we had the pleasure of tasting through the wonderful wines of Warwick and Vilafonté and chatted with the enchanting Norma Radcliffe, one of the first women to make wine in South Africa, and her son Managing Director Mike Radcliffe; and after a good night’s sleep at the Oude Werf in Stellenbosch, the oldest existing inn in South Africa dating back to 1803, (where, because my room was unwittingly cancelled, they were kind enough to give me the only room still available–the honeymoon suite), we set out in the morning for the wilds of Swartland.

Swartland, which translates as “black land,” is home to some of the most radical, innovative and wonderfully seditious winemakers on the current scene. An elevated plain that traditionally grew wheat and provided grazing land for cattle and sheep, it now offers an exciting, if somewhat less
obviously glamorous place to make great wine. The climate can be harsh, the temperature widely swings between night and day. The grapevines are largely un-trellised, un-irrigated bush vines (as all grapevines were originally) but under careful management can produce deep, concentrated fruit and wines of great intensity. Here we visited and tasted and lunched with famed enfant terrible and ex-surfer Eben Sadie of Sadie Family Wines. We spent the rest of the evening and night with the amazing Adi Badenhorst of AA Badenhorst Family Wines. Both are predominant figures in the Swartland Revolution as well as being spirited hosts.

The next morning we headed out to the coast for our last winery visit: Cape Point Vineyards in the Cape Peninsula, where winemaker Duncan Savage showed us around the gorgeous vineyards that slope up and away from False Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, and then provided an extremely enjoyable tasting and lunch at his home.

Unfortunately, the time had come for us to leave South Africa. We left feeling a great deal of excitement for the future of South African wines. The quality in general has improved immensely in just a few short years, and the wines themselves are showing a much greater sense of regional identity thanks to a new generation of committed winemakers and owners as well as those few dedicated, purposeful elders who have always devoted themselves to creating greatness. There were, in fact, many more wines that we loved than we could conceivably buy for ABC right away. But know that our finger is now on the pulse of South African wines, and that the public recognition of its quality is revealed by the fact that South African wine sales have increased by an incredible 17% in the last year.

If you haven’t tried one lately, why not pick up a great South African wine tonight?

Bill Stobbs, ABC Wine Supervisor

(Follow me on Twitter @abcwinebills)