2022 Berry Bros. & Rudd Swartland Red by The Sadie Family Wines, South Africa
Critics reviews
Berry Bros has joined forces with top South African winemaker Eben Sadie to produce its own-label Swartland red – and it's a stunner. From young vineyards that will eventually provide fruit for Sadie's own wines when they're more mature, this is 100% Syrah. Beautifully expressive with appealing aromatics of floral red fruit dusted with white pepper. Such energy and presence on the palate; pure, luscious cherry fruit, fresh acidity, a core of minerality and a savoury glimmer on the lingering finish.
Drink 2023 - 2026
Julie Sheppard, Decanter.com (September 2023)
About this WINE
The Sadie Family Wines
Eben Sadie started his winemaking career working for Charles Back’s Spice Route-labelled wines before breaking out on his own in 1999. Since the first release of Columella with the 2000 vintage, he has acquired a reputation as the most innovative and inspired winemaker in South Africa.
His goal is to produce an expression of a region or specific site. This is the philosophy that drives the production of his Signature Series wines – Columella and Palladius. Columella (predominantly Syrah with a little Mourvèdre, Grenache, Carignan and Cinsault) is one of South Africa’s very best wines, if not the best, named after one of the wine trade’s earliest scribes. It is a blend of old-vine fruit from eight Swartland vineyards, spending 24 months in oak (with only a small proportion that is new) and is racked every six months. Eben’s white wine, Palladius, is arguably more impressive still; it is a delicious blend of 11 varieties from 17 different vineyard sites, with old, bush-vine Chenin Blanc playing the leading role.
The Signature Series was joined by the Old Vine Series (Die Ouwingerdreeks in Africaans) with its first commercial release in 2010. This range of wines is the fruition of a project very close to Eben’s heart. He worked with renowned viticulturalist, Rosa Kruger, to seek out, revitalise, and in some cases, save old vineyards throughout the Cape. These highly sought-after wines are produced in very limited volumes and offer an incredible vinous insight into South Africa’s grape growing and winemaking history. These, and the Signature Series, are incredible wines from a winemaker at the top of his game.
It is hardly surprising that Sadie Family Wines has been awarded the title of the Platter Guide’s Winery of the Year twice (in 2010 and 2015).
Swartland
After Stellenbosch, the west coast district of Swartland (25 miles due north of Cape Town, between the towns of Malmesbury and Piketberg) now ranks as the Cape's most exciting wine-producing district.
Settled initially by nomadic Khoikhoi from Namibia, the Dutch brought trade and vines to the region in the 17th century. Viticulture was developed only more recently.This contrasts with an ancient geology which has brought a mix of shale, arenite sandstone and granite soils air-conditioned by the Atlantic Ocean nearby.
Chenin Blanc and Shiraz seem to do best, as exemplified by the wines of Eben Sadie and Mullineux.
Syrah/Shiraz
A noble black grape variety grown particularly in the Northern Rhône where it produces the great red wines of Hermitage, Cote Rôtie and Cornas, and in Australia where it produces wines of startling depth and intensity. Reasonably low yields are a crucial factor for quality as is picking at optimum ripeness. Its heartland, Hermitage and Côte Rôtie, consists of 270 hectares of steeply terraced vineyards producing wines that brim with pepper, spices, tar and black treacle when young. After 5-10 years they become smooth and velvety with pronounced fruit characteristics of damsons, raspberries, blackcurrants and loganberries.
It is now grown extensively in the Southern Rhône where it is blended with Grenache and Mourvèdre to produce the great red wines of Châteauneuf du Pape and Gigondas amongst others. Its spiritual home in Australia is the Barossa Valley, where there are plantings dating as far back as 1860. Australian Shiraz tends to be sweeter than its Northern Rhône counterpart and the best examples are redolent of new leather, dark chocolate, liquorice, and prunes and display a blackcurrant lusciousness.
South African producers such as Eben Sadie are now producing world- class Shiraz wines that represent astonishing value for money.
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Description
Splurge on the magnificent 2022 Berry Bros Swartland Red by the Sadie family. It’s a wonderfully seductive Syrah with layer after layer of fat, fleshy, spicy incense and bramble fruit.
Jane MacQuitty, The Times (February 2024)
We’re thrilled to work with the legendary Eben Sadie for our Swartland Red, a new addition to our Own Selection. Eben has planted some incredible new vineyards over the last decade. In the future, he’ll use the fruit of these young vines for his own signature wines. But for now, he is working exclusively with us on our Swartland Red and Swartland White.
The precise blend will change from one year to the next; our 2022 Swartland Red is made from 100% Syrah fruit. With pure, freshly picked raspberries on the nose, the palate has deep, fleshy, bramble fruits and gravelly minerality. A delicate umami note lingers on the invigorating finish.
Ready to drink now
Catriona Felstead MW, Senior Buyer, Berry Bros. & Rudd (May 2023)
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