News

Every bottle in our Landscape Series carries a label painted with rock ground from our own vineyards. Real soil, quite literally the ground beneath the vines, mixed into pigment by hand. Here's why, and what that same ground actually does to the wine inside the bottle.

Vetch, Paterson's curse and spiky purple gorse all flower purple on our Bot River vineyard this spring. Here's why only one of them belongs here.

Tim Atkin's 2026 South Africa Special Report placed us again in his "Third Growths" tier alongside Kaapzicht, Waterford, Warwick and Vergelegen, and gave us the 2025 Wine Tourism Award, with Kitchen Door also making his Recommended Restaurants list. On scores, Oxalis, Syrah on Shale and Elodie all came in at 94, Cabernet Franc, Syrah on Sandstone, Amphora Sauvignon Blanc, Era René and Magdalena at 93, Whole Bunch Syrah at 92, Synonym at 90 and The Blend at 89 — solid across the board, if not our highest-scoring year to date.

Budbreak has started along the rows. Farm Manager Dean Leppan isn't calling it an even one yet, and the next few weeks of weather will decide more about this vintage than anything happening in the vineyard right now.

It was quite a season.

Before February, conditions were about as good as they get — clean fruit, low disease pressure, perfect yields. Then a massive storm arrived and changed everything. What followed was a harvest of two halves: one that went to plan, and one that required every person on this farm to adapt quickly.

Two new things! One - a new release - is experimental (and very, very limited!). The other is Elodie 2025, our old vine Chenin Blanc from four Swartland heritage sites, now in its tenth vintage. 

Why does cheese make tannic wine taste better? What happens at a molecular level when you pair lamb with Syrah? Recent research from Bordeaux to Oregon has finally revealed the chemistry behind perfect pairings—and the findings are fascinating. In Part 1, we explore the science of lipid-tannin interactions, the "Camembert effect", and why matching intensities matters more than you think.

Platter's 2026 results are in: two 5-star wines and three "Highly Recommended" for Gabriëlskloof, plus Crystallum's Chardonnay and Pinot Noir of the Year. A week worth celebrating in our Bot River cellar.

What's a garden party?

For us, it's simple: a celebration of summer, outside, in our quad. It's live music drifting across the lawn, cold wine in hand, good food shared with good people, and the kind of lazy afternoon where time seems to slow down just enough.