100% Syrah This wine used to be called “Redemption” however we have now moved on from that period in our life and re named the wine The Dark Side. It is probably our most simple label but I find it very powerful and fitting to the grape Syrah, as it is very black and white. The vineyard is a small 0.75ha block which fits into our framework perfectly. We are very happy with the purity that we have achieved this year and are very excited about this wine.

WINEMAKING Bush vines planted in 2001, the soils have a higher clay content than a lot of the other parcels I get from which helps with water retention which is a good thing in the very dry years. Not a lot of suckering is done to promote leaf growth.

Great South African wine is quite a recent phenomenon. During the apartheid, the wine industry was completely dominated by one organization, which controlled everything from production to price, so it is only since the early 1990s that independent wine producers have emerged. 

Craig Hawkins is one of the most influential and certainly the most exciting winemakers of, not only South Africa, but the the New World. Producing wine in the Swartland in South Africa, he has helped to change the image of South African wine.

Craig's Testalonga wines often have such complexity, derived from his winemaking methods, that the authorities don’t know how to deal with it – he is denied export certification on an annual basis due to his wines lacking ‘typicity’. Well from my portfolio he joins Thierry Puzelat, Didier Barral and Francois Cotat in that regard, all brilliant winemakers who refuse to bow to convention in their quest for excellence and authenticity.

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