Producer Profiles
Established: 2008 | Location: Swartland | Viniculture: Organic
For those who have always wondered (or who haven't but enjoy a fun anecdotal story) about the naming origin of South African's most loved natty wine, here it is in summary. The OG Testalonga was a Sicilian Robin Hood-esque outlaw. Two hundred or so years later, an Italian rebel winemaker who vinified his reds like one would whites donned the Testalonga name. Legend (Google) claims that our beloved Craig Hawkins reached out to the second Testalonga and was granted permission to use the name for his wine-law breaking range of natty wines. And so, a bandit brand persona was born.
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Modern legends aside, the Testalonga wines are legendary. Craig and Carla Hawkins have bottled contradiction. Their wines are simple yet complex. Easy drinking but worth being savoured. Serious, playful and seriously playful. Funky but somehow also distinguished.
Buy a bottle, take a sip and journey through the mind of a winemaker and the strange other-wordly Swartland landscape in which he makes his wine.
Established: 1999 | Location: Swartland, Western Cape | Viniculture: Organic and biodynamic
If you know South African wine, then you know Sadie Family Wines and you know Eben Sadie and you know how highly anticipated each year's release is and what a treat it is for us to have some of their wines listed on this above average online wineshop.
If you don't know wine, Sadie Family Wines or Eben Sadie then you are going to have to trust the word of the writer when she says that the Sadie Family Wines are arguably to best wines our continent has to offer and that you should probably grab a bottle of the 2023 release while you still can.
