24 APR 2024 · Illimis, the Latin word for clarity, signifies winemaker Lucinda Heyns’ crystal clear winemaking philosophy. Wine should be a window to where its vineyard is rooted. Illimis intends to honestly harness what nature offers, and follows a minimal intervention principle as far as possible, allowing the wine to express its origin with clarity, finesse and complexity. Lucinda worked as viticulturist for leading South African wineries and refined her winemaking skills with experience in South Africa, California and Italy. A decade of hands-on involvement in both vineyards and winemaking, developed a clear vision for Illimis. Being a viticulturist at heart, she believes that everything starts with the vines. Every vintage is unique, and her hope is that every wine is a tribute to the endless pursuit of refining the potential of each site the Illimis wines are made from.

17 APR 2024 · Originally from Bordeaux where our family owns 3 wine estates, we fell in love with South Africa during our many travels to the country.Our dream was to combine both, the Old & the New World, to make wines close to our vision of perfection. Therefore, we decided to purchase this boutique wine estate of 32 hectares (including 24 on vines) located in Simonsberg valley in 2004.Manual harvesting, selection of the best grapes, French oak and Acacia barrel ageing, combined with a French "savoir-faire" from our South-African winemaker Jos Van Wyk, will lead you to explore some of the finest wines produced in the region.

21 DEC 2023 · The Hughes Family Wines - or Nativo Wines - is a family-run winery making handcrafted, certified organic wines that are a true reflection of their place of origin. Founded by Argentinean-born Billy Hughes, and run alongside his daughter Kiki, the wines are certified organic and naturally fermented, made using minimal intervention farming and winemaking practices. Their philosophy is that by interfering as little as possible with the wines, the unique flavour of the farm will be protected and expressed. Signature wines include multi-vintage award-winning wines: the Nativo Red Blend and White Blend. Additional limited release wines include a unique skin-contact “orange” or “amber” wine – which has become our signature - and a Field Blend created from a small block of bush vines. We have recently added various newer Mediterranean-style varietals and blends such as Tempranillo, a Shiraz-Mourvèdre Grenache (SMG), and Viognier. The wines have a unique mineral characteristic that is typical of the red clay soil which the vineyard is planted. We take an innovative approach to winemaking, which includes making an effort to understand and preserve the natural ecosystem that is unique to our farm and cellar.

14 DEC 2023 · Travelling through the Swartland on the back of a truck, heading towards an auction, a Nguni cow knew a beautiful vineyard when she saw one and jumped off. She was appropriately named Survivor when the grower found her grazing in his vineyard. Like her, our wines start with a leap in the vineyard and in true Nguni spirit our grapes are now sourced not only from the Swartland, but also the Elgin Valley, Stellenbosch, Darling, Tradouw and Hemel-en-Aarde, to compose the unique complexity and diversity of the wines in the Survivor Range. Our winemaker intensely debated which regions possessed the perfect balance of rainfall, clay, shale and granite content, so that opening a bottle of Survivor allows you to experience the essence of these terroirs. Survivor Wines are as distinctly South African as the Nguni cow that inspired them.

7 DEC 2023 · Lubanzi is a start-up, sustainable, South African wine company, created in Cape Town by two young travelers, Charlie Brain & Walker Brown, who were inspired by a year (in bits and pieces) of living, traveling, hiking, and backpacking all over SA. Started as a collaborative business, Lubanzi is made up of a consortium of successful winemakers, viticulturists, farm laborers, and humanitarians in South Africa as well as its two co-founders. With roots in adventure and global citizenship, our name comes from a wandering dog, the locals called Lubanzi, that followed Walker and Charlie on a 6 day, 100-mile hiking trip across South Africa’s Wild Coast. Built, as a social enterprise, 50% of our year-end net profits are entrusted back to The Pebbles Project, a South African NGO that provides health and educational resources to the families that live and work on wine farms throughout South Africa. Built upon this notion of a more complete, equitable supply chain, Lubanzi strives to use its success to enhance opportunity for those who make what we do possible. Lubanzi was first launched in America in early 2017 and has since expanded into almost every state nationwide. More recently they have expanded into new markets across Canada, UK, Sweden, Ireland, and Asia. Alongside their most recent launch of their ‘Orange Is’ skin-contact Chenin they have also launched two new wines into their core portfolio- a Sauvignon Blanc and a Cinsault. In addition to being featured by NPR, the Washington Post, Forbes, Food & Wine, Business Insider South Africa & others, we’ve received 90+ points from multiple acclaimed wine outlets such as James Suckling, Wine Enthusiast, Anthony Dias, and Decanter. Hailing from South Africa’s rugged and iconic Swartland, we’re about making fairly- produced wine that punches far above its weight and is a force for good in the world.

5 DEC 2023 · Rainbow’s End was bought in 1978 by Jaques Malan. Since then owned by the Malan family. Started to plant vineyards in 2000 after terroir planning was done in 1999 by Prof Eben Archer. Rainbow’s End just planted under reds comprising 18ha of the Bordeaux varieties and Shiraz. ( 35% Cabernet Franc; 25% Merlot; 25% Cabernet Sauvignon; 10% Shiraz and 5% Petit Verdot and Malbec ). First wine was made in 2002 by Anton Malan being the winemaker since then and assisted by his brother Francois Malan who is the viticulturist and farm manager. Office, logistics, marketing related issues is done by Jana Cloete and winemaker Anton Malan is also responsible for the sales. Future projects has been done like planting of flowers and fynbos by Francois. ( proteas and pincussions). A new tasting room with spectacular views of the mountains and vineyards has been build in covid and opened in January ‘ 2022. After 18 months allready a huge success. Winemaking is done in a traditional way. Picking all by hand, destemming with no crushing and hansorted before going into tank. Open tank fermentation with traditional punch downs still done by hand. A unique cooling process is done with water pumped from their natural fountain through stainless steel plates in the tanks and back into the fountain. All the wines are matured in 225 liter French Oak barrels for 12 months and the icon Bordeaux blend consisting of only 12 barrels matured for 24 months. 40% of the wine is exported to countries like German, Switzerland, UK, Belgium, USA, Singapore and Japan. The other 60% is sold to the top restarants in SA, Private buyers and from the farm’s tasting room. Label is done in a traditional, classique style by their artist sister Marieke and the label is still the same as it was when first released in 2002. The red wines are all Estate wine with the flagship vatiety being Cabernet Franc followed by top Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Then a Bordeaux blend , The Family Reserve is made consisting of the best 12 barrels of the vintage out of their Bordeaux varieties. A marketing approach is driven by personal relationships and is done by Anton in the trade and exports and Fennel, ( the tasting room manager ), and Jana from the farm. The end produck is a boutique exclusive wine sold at very competive prices. Focus is 100% on quality and consistency. The red wines is made in a style between Old and New World wines. Wines that you can drink at a young age but can also mature for up to 10-15 years. The unique location in the highest corner of the Banghoek valley with great red oakleaf/red hutton soils with the passionate people working the soil, vineyards, wines and marketing/admin is the biggest attribute with their top quality red wine boutique brand.

30 NOV 2023 · It takes years to build a Legacy. Even Decades. Or sometimes Centuries. Groot Constantia wine farm is testimony of how one man’s love for wine established South Africa’s first wine farm in 1685. In a word, our wines are from rich African soil, crafted to perfection. Groot Constantia memories are part of literature and heritage and embodies the timeless endeavour to perfection. Furthermore, our heritage stands for growth, life and beauty. Equally important, it is alive and vibrant, like the vineyards we hold dear. It is in our hearts.

23 NOV 2023 · The Damascene cellar is a physical extension of our aspirations to communicate place through wine. As such, each vessel and process in the cellar must be as gentle as possible to ensure the narrative is not obscured by invasive winemaking techniques. This means that, for our red wines, no berries are crushed in the cellar. Whole berry fermentation is essential to preserve aromatics and elegance in a wine.We also use a roving satellite tank to fill the fermentation vessels, which does away with the need for pumping of grapes from the fruit reception area into tanks. In our conical concrete tanks, we have custom-designed set plates to facilitate a submerged cap fermentation for some cultivars; eradicating the need for punch downs or pump overs in these instances.Our red wines are, for the most part, matured in 2000-litre Austrian foudre, with a small portion being matured in 225-litre French oak barrels. Our white wines are all whole-bunch pressed via pneumatic press, using a delicate champagne press programme. They are then fermented and matured in 1000-litre oval Austrian oak foudres.

16 NOV 2023 · Bayede! Is the only Royal Brand and the only Royal signature and “By appointment to” trademark on the African continent. It reflects royalty, history, culture and quality.Bayede! Wine ranges suh as our lifestyl Broyal Range,The Shield Range, The Prince and Princes Range, to Premium Royal Range and Ultra Premium His Majesty King Range.The story of Bayede dates back more than 200 years ago, when King Shaka Zulu, the founder of South Africa’s Zulu Kingdom was greeted by his subjects with the royal salute “Bayede!” translated as Hail the King.Innovation: Late King Goodwill Zwelithine, the eight reigning Zulu King met with Antoinette Vermooten and after a cup of tea Antoinette realised not oly was His Majesty King Goodwill completely non – sicriminatory, but his obvious integrity and evident sincerity to help the poor and needy was music to her ears. The King asked her to help him to create jobs in South Africa. The King gave his warrant, the official Royal seal and signatrure to the Bayede Company.Bayede! Distinguised itself from other brands by job creations for women in rural areas. The bottles of wine produced have beadwork around the neck. At present Bayede! Has 30 beading ladies do beadwork providing a sustainable income for the families. The Zulu King envisages that the Bayede! Royal trademark will be “the instrument that pust food on tables and people to wordk”Future projects: Bayede! Women Empowerment Foundation: This foundation will focus on training for responsible drinking and cover issues such as domestic violence and early childhood development.

9 NOV 2023 · Holden Manz Wine Estate was established in 2010. The 22 hectare farm is planted with cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot and syrah. Semillon, chenin blanc, chardonnay, viognier, grenache and cinsault grapes are purchased by this party growers.The estate produces around 130.000 bottles per annum of which around 65% are exported outside South Africa. Holden Manz is a center of wine tourism with a five star guest house and spa, restaurant and tasting room. Most of our wines are fermented spontaneously using natural yeast. The farm has 75KW of solar panels. We use only French oak barrels for maturation and fermentation and also make use of co-fermentation as a vinificazione method.