Spice Route, Swartland Pinotage

Charles Back was an early pioneer in the Swartland when he started Spice Route in 1998, after tasting an exceptional Sauvignon Blanc and immediately buying the land on which it was grown. “Without [Charles]…the Swartland would still be regarded as a rural backwater” wrote Tim Atkin, who awarded the winery ‘Cru Bourgeois’ status in his South Africa Classification in 2019. Today, the Swartland is the source of many of South Africa’s outstanding wines, yet Spice Route remains one of its best and most credible producers. This is largely because they own all their own vineyards, which encompass 100 hectares in Malmesbury and Darling. The former, all bush trained and planted on Malmesbury shale and red clay subsoils, give the Grenache and Mourvèdre grown there an intensity that makes this region so exciting.

Winemaker Charl du Plessis has been with Charles since 2002 and knows the region intimately. The winemaking is ‘hands-off’, as Charles is keen to capture the flavours and structure of the outstanding fruit he has grown. In fact, despite the desert-like conditions of the region, the vines are not even irrigated. The signature wine is the ‘Chakalaka’, a blend of six grape varieties named after a spicy South African relish which similarly fuses different flavours. A blend of Syrah, Mourvèdre, Grenache, Carignan, Petite Sirah and Tannat, it has great intensity, a Rhône-style depth and supple tannins.

Offering outstanding examples of single-variety wines, the ‘Swartland’ Grenache is juicy and savoury with smooth tannins, while the ‘Swartland’ Mourvèdre is darker in flavour with greater density and chunkier tannins. The complex barrel-fermented ‘Tarragon’ Old Vine Chenin Blanc hails from a vineyard planted in 1978 and consistently offers superb value.