Swartland Region

Sequillo comes from the Latin and means an arid, dry place of great purity: a very good description of the Swartland in South Africa. It is the Swartland that the Sadie Family strive to capture in their Sequillo wines, vintage after vintage. Their wines must reflect the soils and have a strong sense of place; and this expression of place must be unrefined and unfiltered.

The Label

The illustration of the abandoned harvesting machine is in line with the “back to the roots” message of this year’s labels. It is obviously not really necessary to explain the advantages of picking by hand versus doing so with a machine; and then there are also the social-economic realities that machines bring with them and that have a strong impact on any society. The Sadie Family prefer the koggelmanders not to end up in their wine. The abandoned harvesting machine now serves as a great lookout post for a Jackal Buzzard!

The Wine

The 2010 Swartland vintage promised to be a great one from the outset. Eben focused on picking the vineyards before the extreme heat waves set in and also continued with minimum extraction throughout fermentation. The key characteristics of the 2010 vintage are very clear spicy and herbal flavours and a fresh, red fruit aroma. Compared to the two previous vintages, the palate is slightly denser and promises an even better ageing capacity. Sophistication meets approachability here and this wine is just a more complete picture: more detail; more depth.