THE SADIE FAMILY Columella 2023

Eben Sadie is without doubt the driving force of this estate, where his sister and brother also work. A grower in the Swartland region, he produces what are very probably the best wines in South Africa. He is also one of the most striking and charismatic figures in the wine industry of the southern hemisphere. Eben Sadie has very broad international experience, having worked in Austria, Spain, Germany, Italy, Oregon and Burgundy. On his return to South Africa, he devoted himself to his own vineyard. The Sadie Family sources its grapes mainly from the Swartland, one of the hottest wine regions in South Africa. Yet all its wines, white and red alike, offer perfectly controlled alcohol levels and show no heaviness. Its grapes come from 54 plots spread over 38 hectares. All the plots are farmed biodynamically and yields are extremely low.

Columella is the flagship cuvée among the red wines in the range. It is a blend of Carignan, Cinsault, Grenache, Mourvèdre, Syrah and Tinta Barocca. This wine is made in very limited quantities and is of course hand-picked, fermented with native yeasts in concrete tanks, followed by a further 3 weeks of maceration. Nothing else is added. Malolactic fermentation takes place in oak barrels, 5% of them new and the rest used. After 12 months of ageing, the wine is aged in large wooden casks for another year on its fine lees. After 2 years, the wine is bottled without filtration or fining. This wine reveals a complex bouquet of red fruit, raspberry, plum, black cherry, red flowers, black olive, pepper, aromatic herbs and Asian spices. On the palate it is very elegant, with nothing too much and nothing too little. The wine shows incredible balance, juicy acidity and powdery tannins, ending in a long finish.

The first vines were planted in South Africa by Dutch settlers in the 1650s, although wine production did not really begin to take off until the arrival of French Protestants, in the 1680s, with their skills and their knowledge of viticulture. Stellenbosch is also a historic wine region, with the first vineyards being planted there in the 1690s.



Today South Africa is one of the most important wine producing countries in the southern hemisphere. With over 300 years of winemaking history, it is often described as a bridge between the Old and New Worlds. The majority of wines are produced using New World winemaking techniques, but they often have more in common stylistically with their Old World counterparts. Since the end of apartheid, South African wine has received international attention and acclaim for its wide variety of styles.



South Africa's wine industry is spread across the lush and rugged landscape of the Western Cape. Here, the abundance of mountains, valleys and plateaus allows winemakers to produce a wide variety of styles. Vineyards can also be found in the Orange River region of the Northern Cape, where the flat, arid landscape is dominated by the Kalahari Desert. Most of South Africa's wine regions have a Mediterranean climate, strongly influenced by the meeting of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.



The country's signature grape variety is Pinotage, an indigenous cross of Pinot Noir and Cinsaut that is rarely found in quantity in other wine-producing countries. Shiraz (Syrah) is also widely planted, as are Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot (often combined in a Bordeaux blend). South African Chardonnay, Chenin and Sauvignon Blanc have become popular internationally in recent years.