Danie and Hugo’s amazing value Family Chenin Blanc comes from their premier cru equivalent grapes. This wine is their grand cru.

The grapes are grown on Rooidraai soil - a granite derivative which stains your hands blood red when you pick it up. These special soils give the wine an amazing minerality and salinity which is so unique in this wine.

You might have heard of Swartland… it means ‘Black Land’ and until not-too-long ago it was better known for producing grain than grapes. Wheat growers would have a few blocks of grapes to get their quota of brandy from KMV, South Africa’s ginormous spirits producer.

It’s now home to the who’s-who of South African winemakers, who discovered that these old, previously unloved vines could actually make some of South Africa’s best and most iconic wines.

The secret to Swartland is the combination of magical soils and sun exposure. And Danie enlists one of South Africa’s best winemakers, Lukas van Loggerenberg, to guide his amazing fruit into bottle.

The grapes come off a block of 40-year old vineyard with steep slopes and Rooidraai soil which is rich in minerals. The wine is aged in old oak barrels for 10 months, and then bottled, giving you the simplest, purest expression of this special place in your glass.

When Danie talks about making the soils and the vineyards the rockstars again, you’ll see exactly what he means with this wine.