Meet the Winemaker
Sipho Madikane
Bothashoek Estate · Bot River · Syrah & Chenin Blanc
“Wine is agriculture before it is luxury. Never forget the soil.”
The interview
Where did the wine start for you?
In the cellar as a harvest worker at nineteen. I liked that the work never lied to you. If you were careless in February you tasted it in November.
Why Syrah in Bot River?
The wind. It thickens the skins and keeps the yields honest. You get pepper and fynbos rather than jam.
What are you working on next?
An old-vine Chenin Blanc from a neighbour's 1978 block. It has been sold to a co-op for forty years. It deserves a label of its own.
“Wine is agriculture before it is luxury. Never forget the soil.”
The vineyard
Bush vines on weathered sandstone, planted low to the ground to survive the south-easter that funnels up from the lagoon.
The cellar
Old concrete tanks, restored and re-lined. Natural ferments, minimal sulphur and bottling by moon phase, mostly out of habit.
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