TESTALONGA
KLOOFS & BERGS
Swartland is an intimidating region. Massive rocky outcroppings punctuate nearly flat wheat and canola fields. These ancient mountains look as though they may crumble before your eyes. There’s something surreal about the landscape - more than anywhere else I’ve ever visited, it looks like someone may have dreamt it up and then built it by hand. To the west, there is the rugged Atlantic coastline. Frigid waves crash relentlessly. On the region’s north-eastern border, a wall of mountains towers above the surrounding plains. Nestled into this range, you’ll find Banditskloof, a small farm planted by Craig and Carla Hawkins.
As you drive down the red dirt road to their home and winery, you can’t help but feel you’ve reached the end of the earth. Small farming communities are their only neighbours - Carla drives to a town two hours away to do groceries nearly every week. When they first purchased the property, it was half derelict farm, half wildland. Angsty baboons and leopards live on the peaks above their home. They had to start from scratch.
PLANTING A VINEYARD
Craig cleared the field he wished to plant, moving massive boulders, and ripping out the ubiquitous fynbos shrubs that tend to fill any uncultivated space in the Western Cape. Soils here tend to be acidic, so he added a small amount of lime to correct the pH. For the last three years, he has cultivated cover crops to get oxygen and organic matter into the soils. The lupins were nearly as tall as I was thanks to the abundant spring rain; after years of drought, the water was a godsend.
SWARTLAND NEGOCIANT
Most of Craig’s grapes come from vineyards an hour or more away. We visited several sites, including two adjacent Chenin Blanc vineyards in a secluded valley. Soils here are mostly decomposed granite and sandstone; since it had just rained, it literally felt like beach sand in your hands. Their biggest viticultural concern here is not rot or mildew but weeds. With such extreme drought conditions, any plant between the vine sucks up vital moisture. When possible, they pay extra to have the vineyard weeded by hand. These vineyards are responsible for the “I Am the Ninja” sparkling and “Stay Brave”.
MINIMAL INTERVENTION WINEMAKING
Back at the winery, Craig likes to keep things simple. He mostly direct presses the grapes into a variety of neutral barrels. He claims that he’ll switch to glass-lined tanks once he can afford it. That way, the wine is only in contact with one type of inert material during its entire élevage. Every wine is wild fermented; no adjustments are made to acid or sugar. Some wines are lightly filtered before bottling, but it isn’t necessarily the norm. After years of experimentation, he was introduced to an extremely gentle filter-pad his friend Jurgen (Intellego Wines) swears by. After a quick test batch, he used it only on the wines he thought had something to gain from the mild clearing of large particulate. Pragmatism is king.
BEYOND THE DOMAINE
When he’s not making wine (or beating me at lawn bowling), he is experimenting with Eau-de-Vies and distillates. He’s planted a couple of acres of cactus pears from which he’d like to make some sort of spirit or liqueur. Additionally, he’s macerating wild herbs in distillate - the results of which are not unlike Chartreuse. Seldom have I met anyone with such drive and such vision.
On my final day at Banditskloof, I said goodbye to Craig and Carla’s giant lovable guard dogs and drove south towards Paardeberg. We briefly stopped in at Morelig to see their Cinsault vines. As with their other vineyards, this site is farmed organically by a wonderful little family who is now making a small amount of wine themselves. Once again, compared to the chemically farmed vineyards that plague this region, their plot looks vital and alive.
Craig’s wines are thoughtful. There’s an intelligence in each bottle I don’t see often. They are mature and wise but no less thrilling to drink. Their ultimate goal is to fit drinkability and complexity into the same bottle. Craig believes both those traits are easy to achieve independently but rarely coexist. He’s absolutely achieved his mission.
MORE FROM SOUTH AFRICA: CRAVEN | INTELLEGO
GROWN AND MADE ON THE TRADITIONAL LANDS OF THE: SAN | KHOEKHOE
ESTIMATED RETAIL PRICE: $34.00 CAD
CSPC: 800242
2023 KEEP ON PUNCHING CHENIN BLANC
This site was planted in 1961 on sandstone adjacent to the river in the Piketberg Foothills. Access to water is crucial for these dry-farmed vines; fortunately, its proximity to the water-table and abundant over-winter rainfall helped bolster the crop. The Chenin Blanc was whole-bunch pressed into a combination of stainless steel and neutral foudres for fermentation and élevage.
ESTIMATED RETAIL PRICE: $34.00 CAD
CSPC: 800244
2023 STAY BRAVE CHENIN BLANC
This vineyard was planted with Chenin Blanc in 1981 but abandoned in 2014. Craig tried to revive it in 2016 but it yielded no grapes. 2017 saw tremendous improvement and the 1.5ha of bush-vines cropped well. Located a mere 30km from the ocean on decomposed granite, the grapes tend to show a salinity. The grapes were destemmed and fermented in 1500L open top tanks. After 10 days on skins the wine is pressed off into a 3300L foudre for élevage. It was lightly filtered before bottling.
2023 FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS CARIGNAN
Carignan was planted on this site in 2001. The north-facing vineyard sits 220m above sea level on the Paardeberg’s decomposed granite. Despite dry farming, the vines are rather vigorous; this green matter is often retained to delay ripening and prevent sunburn. With high heat predicted, the grapes were harvested in a mad dash to retain acidity. Whole clusters were crushed and fermented in open-top tank for eight days before being pressed off into neutral foudres.
2023 CHIN UP CINSAULT
This 3ha block of Cinsault was planted in 1981 on an east-facing slope of decomposed granite. The vines are dry farmed and tend to yield large, thin-skinned berries. The grapes were destemmed into open top tank where they underwent fermentation as whole berries for six days. The wine is then pressed into neutral foudres for élevage. The wine is racked, lightly filtered, and bottled with minimal sulphur.
2023 CORTEZ CHENIN BLANC
These Chenin Blanc vines were planted in 1972 on decomposed granite with a high percentage of quartz and silica. Farmed organically since 2001, this vineyard features dry-farmed bush vines planted on a south-east facing slope at 200m above sea level. The grapes are whole bunch pressed into stainless steel and foudres for fermentation and élevage. After six months, the wine is blended and put back into the same vessels for further maturation. Three hundred seventy-five cases were produced.
2023 SKIN CHENIN BLANC
This was the first wine Craig made for this project in 2008. After many years of experimentation, he feels he has found a methodology that shows the delicacy of Chenin in a skin-fermented wine. The bush vines were planted in 1972. The vines weren’t suckered, which helped retain leaves, resulting in grapes with a better balance of acidity, alcohol, and phenolics. The grapes are destemmed and fermented in open top tank for eight days. The wine is then pressed off into neutral barrique and puncheon for élevage.
ESTIMATED RETAIL PRICE: $40.00 CAD
CSPC: 800241
2023 I WISH I WAS A NINJA
This vineyard has been farmed organically by Dr Edmund Oettlé in Wellington since 1998. The vines go un-watered, but an adjacent river prevents water stress. The soils are dominantly decomposed granite. The site tends to preserve incredible acidity even in warm and dry vintages. The juice is fermented at stainless steel at really low temperatures (8oC). The wine was racked nine times to remove solids before going to bottle at 55g/l of sugar. The wine finishes fermentation in bottle under crown cap before being disgorged the following spring. This wine is unfined, unfiltered, and has no added Sulphur. It is off-dry.
ESTIMATED RETAIL PRICE: $40.00 CAD
CSPC: 813936
2023 I AM THE NINJA
This wine is made from Craig’s oldest Chenin Blanc vines. Planted in 1961, this little vineyard lies on decomposed sandstone next to a small river in a secluded valley. It is part of the Piketberg foothills near Redelinghuys, making it a really interesting mesoclimate. Thanks to the delicacy of fruit and lower pH Craig opted to make this wine sparkling. It ferments at cool temperatures (8oC) with constant racking to remove heavy sediment. The wine is bottled while still fermenting (35g/l r/s) resulting in vigorous carbonation. The wine was hand disgorged and topped with the same wine after ten months on lees. No sulphur was added at any point
ESTIMATED RETAIL PRICE: $77.00 CAD
CSPC: 108594
2021 DAISY’S POND WHITE
ESTIMATED RETAIL PRICE: $53.00 CAD
CSPC: 800234
2023 SWEET CHEEKS MUSCAT
This small vineyard of Hanepoot (Muscat d’Alexandria) was planted in 1970 next to the site Craig gets the Chenin for Cortez from. They traditionally use them as table grapes (the local kids would eat them, hence the name), but Craig wanted to try to make something more serious by fermenting on the skins. After 8 days on the skins the wine is pressed off into neutral barrel for élevage. This wine is fully dry.
ESTIMATED RETAIL PRICE: $53.00 CAD
CSPC: 800233
2023 QUEEN OF SPADES
This 0.1ha plot was accidentally planted with Tinta Amarela instead of Tempranillo in 1999. Having worked in Portugal, Craig was excited by the opportunity to work with the grape again. The dry-farmed bush-vines are planted on the region’s typical decomposed granite. They avoid shoot thinning to help prevent sunburn on the grapes. Nitrogen fixing cover crops are planted between the rows to help with soil fertility. The grapes were fermented whole-cluster in tank for fifteen days before being pressed off into a single 300L barrel for élevage.
ESTIMATED RETAIL PRICE: $53.00 CAD
CSPC: 800239
2023 MONKEY GONE TO HEAVEN
This vineyard was planted in 2001 and features dry farmed, bush vines and the typical decomposed granite soils of Swartland. Whole-clusters were fermented in tank for 10 days before being pressed onto into neutral puncheons. The wine is unfined, unfiltered, and sees only minimal Sulphur before bottling.
ESTIMATED RETAIL PRICE: $53.00 CAD
CSPC: 800238
2023 MANGALIZA HARSLEVELU
While making wine for Dirk Niepoort’s project in Austria, Craig fell in love with Harslevelu. Ironically, in the vineyard next to where he sources the fruit for Cortez and Sweet Cheeks, he found a 0.5ha plot of the grape planted back in 1981. Located near the bottom of the Paardeberg, the vines benefit from a closer proximity to the water table. The grapes are whole-cluster pressed into neutral barrel for fermentation and élevage.
ESTIMATED RETAIL PRICE: $53.00 CAD
CSPC: 800240
2023 HALLELUJAH CHICKEN RUN VIOGNIER
ESTIMATED RETAIL PRICE: $53.00 CAD
CSPC: 800235
2023 THE DARK SIDE SYRAH
Craig gets his Syrah from a 0.75ha vineyard planted in 2001. The higher proportion of clay in the soils here help with dry farming, and they intentionally leave lots of leaves and shoots on the vines to keep ripeness in check. Whole-clusters were fermented in open top tank for 8 days before being pressed off into neutral puncheons. A small amount of SO2 was added a month before bottling.
