The whole project started as a venture that focuses on the limited production of one wine. This one wine is to be vinified exclusively from Southern Rhone grape varieties as we feel they are particularly suited to our climate. It is a common known fact that in continental climates most of the mono-varietal wines excel, for this there is more than sufficient proof. One only has to look at regions such as Burgundy with its Pinot Noir or Piedmont with it Nebbiolo grapes or the Mosel for its Riesling wines. In all of those regions the mono-varietals wines bring an abundance of complexity, structure and result in complete all-round wines with huge expression of its terroir. But in the warmer Mediterranean climates people have for century’s blended different grape varieties as to gain the complexity and all round structure and balance as in the case of their more northern cooler counterparts. We have therefore set out to produce this one wine from the following Mediterranean varieties; Syrah, Mourvèdre and Grenache. Eben Sadie started as winemaker with Charles Back, heading up the newly formed Spice Route venture. He left in 2000 and has since established a stellar reputation for his Columella and Palladius wines, which are widely regarded as among the best red and white wines, respectively, from the Cape. He’s still only young (33), but has a commanding sense of authority about him. He speaks, and people listen. A sort of winemaking guru. I met with him and his wife Maria for a long Friday night dinner held at the home of Willi and Tania of Scali. Eben grew up in South Africa making wine for other people, but felt that the wines always lacked something. He travelled to Europe and realized that what was missing was tradition. ‘There is a wheel of terroir’, he explains. ‘There’s history, tradition and time, as well as other elements, and these three aren’t always welcome in the world that we are living in today’. So he left South Africa on a working journey of discovery that took him through Germany, Austria, Italy, Oregon and Burgundy. ‘I recognized that in Burgundy people have a heart in them: they breathe the wine. It is part of how they move’. On returning to South Africa Eben started Columella on a shoestring. He made just 17 barrels in his first vintage, 2000, because he didn’t have the money to invest in it. His goal was to do something that had a bit of the greatness he’d seen in some European wines, and he found three vineyards where he thought he could achieve this. Eben has quite a European philosophy on wine. ‘I don’t like the term "winemaker" at all’, he explains. ‘Until recently it didn’t exist: now we live in a world where we "make" wines’. Eben continues, ‘to be involved with a great wine is to remove yourself from the process. In all the "making" the virtue of terroir is lost’. When Eben started Columella he knew the wine had to be a blend. His view is that in cool continental climates single varieties excel: there’s a dialogue with the environment and a long time to interpret the vintage. The coast is best for blends, he maintains, but adds, ‘there are always exceptions: you can never generalize in wine’. What’s the Sadie secret? He takes incredible care in the vineyards. He doesn’t have machines in the cellar: everything is done by gravity and hand. Wooden open fermenters are used. ‘It’s a very pure way of producing the wine’.
| Sequillo Red 2005 | |
| ZA-BL-0261-05 | |
| http://www.sequillo.com | |
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