Wine Life

For the third episode of Wine Life , I sat down with Berene Sauls of Tesselaarsdal wines at the tasting room at Hamilton Russell Vineyards, where she still works as the import, export, transport, packaging and logistics manager (yes that’s a mouthful), having started as the nanny to Anthony Hamilton Russell’s children in 2001, as a red-cheeked 18 year-old. In 2015 she was given the start-up money by Anthony himself, to start her own wine brand, Tesselaarsdal Wines, currently encapsulating a Pinot Noir and Chardonnay made from the La Vierge Babylon vineyard in the Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge, the wines made by Hamilton Russell winemaker, Emul Ross, who is systematically teaching her eldest son Darren, the ropes. Since 2015 she’s gone on to purchase a 16.6ha farm in the Tesselaar Hills, an area she hopes to have designated when her vines come of age, and is working on establishing a first generation farming endeavour for her two sons to take over in the future. But Berene is not as straight-laced as she sounds, and her journey has been anything but effortless. From Lot’s wife and her cousins, dried snoek, Mr. Brian Sauls (her father), and an absence of TIME, I spent most of the time laughing at her wonderfully honest answers and almighty WILL. But best YOU listen and get the story from the proverbial horse’s mouth. 

For the second episode of Wine Life, we sat down with Stephanie Wiid of Thistle & Weed Wines, Tim Atkin's Young Winemaker of 2024, at their new tasting room on the Leef op Hoop farm in the Jonkershoek Valley. Arguably Stellenbosch wine royalty, with a grandfather who was Neil Joubert of Spier, she worked under Charles Back at Fairview for 11 years before she went out on her own with business partner and Vinpro viticulturist Etienne Terblanche in 2016. Stephanie is a Swiftie, mother of three, winemaker, lover of Portuguese varieties in the Cape, and a ceramicist. In no particular order. And also somehow finds the time to make beautiful, award-winning Cape Chardonnay for Draaiboek wines, as well as the Terblanche Family's Elmie Rosé, among a number of other side hustles. She represents that particular brand of can-do that seems to permeate the industry, and even managed to record their family dog, Kolisi or Khaleesi - either Bok captain or Mother of Dragons, depending on the day - to put on record his particular brand of extra. Winemakers and their dogs, it's a thing.

For the inaugural episode of Wine Life, we met up with Dan Colombo of Colombo Wines in a non-descript cellar in the Joubertskloof of the Paardeberg in Swartland, which he shares with MC Stander of L'Equinox Wines. Here, Dan makes wines bordering on the definition of natural, made with some of our most historically undervalued grapes, beautifully. We discuss what it is to be a young winemaker in South Africa, what inspires him to make these esoteric wines without potentially having a market yet to sell them in, his definition of a good wine, what wine pairs well with Simba Peanuts & Raisins, and where to eat and drink in Cape Town.