Twenty-five years ago fine wine producers generally owned and managed their own vineyards. The same wasn’t true for big industrial producers, who were often landless. Their business model was based on their controlling the processing part of the operation, buying grapes either on contract or on an ad hoc basis.
The Gallo brothers literally did their grape shopping by helicopter, but they were making more wine than the whole Cape wine industry at the time. The core message of high-end smaller producers has always been the specifics of their particular patch of dirt. If you don’t own it, you can’t sing and dance about it.
This has changed, more markedly in SA than in many places of the Old World, a function of the decline of the co-op system, which freed up growers to sell their fruit to the highest bidder. Early pioneers included Neil Ellis, who built his business by contracting with independent grape growers in sites he believed provided the grapes of the quality that fitted the aesthetic vision he had for his wines.
The next wave of independent grape-buyers-cum-winemakers was led by Eben Sadie and the targets of his fruit acquisitions were the former co-op members whose older vineyard blocks included the often unfashionable varieties on which he has focused his wine styles. At a time when no-one was looking for uniquely sited parcels of palomino, clairette blanche, tinta barocca and semillon he found a cornucopia of viticultural treasures.
His vision spawned an entire subsection of the industry. The statistics alone are revealing: in 1999 the Cape wine industry comprised 4,600 growers delivering a total crop of a little more than 1-million tonnes. A total of 315 wineries processed this fruit, of which 74 handled less than 100 tonnes (the equivalent of about 7,000 cases).
In 2024 the crop was slightly larger than a quarter of a century previously (1.1-million tonnes) though the number of growers had actually halved (2,255). Meantime, the number of producing cellars had actually increased to more than 500. Most significantly, the number crushing less than 100 tonnes had almost trebled, and now stands at about 200.
The tonnage of grapes has been more or less constant over 25 years, but the number of cellars has almost doubled, with the real growth in the most boutique enterprises. This is where much of the energy of the industry resides: the creative, often very young and usually landless winemakers inspired by the model popularised by Sadie in the first decade of this century.
Salt Rock Wines, a partnership between Rudolph Steenkamp and Zander Grier, is a perfect example of this model in action. Most of their wine comes from vineyards in close proximity to the sea (which may have as much to do with a penchant for surfing as it does for the moderating climatic influence of the maritime zone).
Their not insubstantial range comes with brand names like Stand Alone, El Niño/La Niña and Salt Rock (which can be a little confusing). Almost all the wines are very fine — as good as you will get from any of the producers against whom they compete. Even those that are good rather than striking offer value not often found in small scale (so higher production cost per bottle) environments.
The must-buy wines include their 2024 semillon gris, made from Swartland fruit, a wine that delivers ample palate weight and flavour, lovely nuances and great length, all for R200/bottle. Their 2025 sauvignon blanc (R125) from Stellenbosch is neither grassy nor tropical but instead delivers the hallmark lime-blossom whiffs of a good Sancerre. Their 2024 pinot noir (R375) is wonderfully aromatic — more New World than old — and accordingly dangerously seductive. They also produce one of the Cape’s best cinsauts, and at R200/bottle, possibly the best value.
Of the other wines in the range — you can hardly go wrong with either of the two chenin blancs, while their multi-vintage red blend is a great buy at R150.
This article was first published in Business Day.
