We’re welcoming the new year with our favourite summertime wines from SA’s most prominent natural wine producer: Testalonga, by Craig and Carla Hawkins. The 2022 Testalonga Baby Banditos are crunchy, bright, and delicious. Etched with the soul of the Swartland, these terroir-expressive wines offer awesome value at R170!
Keep on Punching 2022 is fresh and salty, made from old-vine Swartland Chenin Blanc planted in 1961. It’s perfectly summed up by Jancis Robinson: ‘Layer Jura with Savennières with uber-dry Mosel.’
The geekier Stay Brave 2022, also 100% Swartland Chenin, sees 10 days’ skin contact and has ‘lovely generosity of fruit’, says Christian Eedes. Its nervous energy and textured finish make it one of our go-to wines for a fish braai by the sea.
The 2022 Follow Your Dreams Carignan is filled with bright red fruit, dried fynbos and chalky tannins – it’s the perfect summertime red. And while you’re stocking up on the Baby Banditos, keep an eye out for a few available bottles of the 95-point El Bandito Cortez 2022 and the 94-point El Bandito Skin 2022.
If you’re in the mood for bubbly, don’t forget their mouth-watering pet-nats – I wish I was a Ninja 2022, from 100% Colombard, and the ‘serious yet playful’I am the Ninja 2022, produced from Chenin Blanc. These sparkling wines are wonderfully refreshing with a dry, herbaceous finish.
‘My idea of terroir is simple: single grape, single soil,’ explains Craig. Testalonga’s grapes are organically farmed and the wines see no additives.
