Testalonga Wines
Testalonga is headed by Craig Hawkins, South Africa’s nominated “Natural Wine King”. He, and his wife Carla, are producing some of the more innovative wines in the country at the moment sourcing most of their grapes from farmers with old vine plots scattered across Paardeberg Swartland. Thanks to their loyal growers they are able to get access to incredibly ripe grapes such as Grenache, Chenin Blanc, Muscat, Carignan and Harslevelu. They recently bought their own plot on the rich schist soils of northern Swartland where they plan to plant more Chenin Blanc and the country’s first plantings of Vermentino and Macabeu. Currently they are producing 50,000 bottles (a tiny amount!!) of single-varietal bottlings of Chenin Blanc, Carignan, Syrah, Grenache, Cinsault, and more. His Chenin Blanc is produced ‘orange’ and not, it is because of this that he was initially proclaimed as the ‘Natural Wine King’ of South Africa. Ever since he has become a loud voice in the movement in South Africa.
