Life is what happens when you’re making other plans, as the John Lennon song goes. Unless you’re a Stones fan, in which case you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find you get what you need might be more your speed. Either way, the art of surrender is one Zwartwater is built upon.
Stefan Johannes is a musician-turned-agricultural-economist-turned-almost-Australian-winemaker-turned-Swartland-proprietor. To put it in a nutshell. When Covid took away the Johannes family’s dreams of making Hunter Valley Shiraz and having shrimp on the barbie, the plan was to find a wine farm back home. Lammershoek lay waiting. Long considered the crown jewel of the Swartland (its first vineyards planted back in 1719), a chain of ownership handovers caused Lammershoek to lose some of its sheen. But a dryland farm in a water-scarce area was not the plan. So onward the Johanneses went. But when Eben Sadie picks up the phone to personally ask you to be his neighbour…well, you go back to Lammershoek. “Eben showed me the power of granitic soil and dryland farming,” says Stefan. He bought the farm. It rained that same day.
Lammershoek has long been the grape-sourcing hotspot for rockstar and small indie winemakers alike, with a terroir reputation so illustrious that its origin is now trademarked. Stefan felt the grapes deserved their own identity, separate from the wines made from them. Zwartwater, named after the Johannes family farm in Umpumalanga, has only one rule: to showcase the terroir of Lammershoek. These are wines that blanket you in déjà vu… until you remember great wines from the Swartland and realise you already know the taste of Lammershoek intimately, just told through the prism of different winemakers.
The white is a blend of mostly Chenin, with dashes of Viognier, Hárslevelű, Marsanne and Chardonnay. It’s got that focused Swartland lime zinging acidity, a nose of freshly laundered sheets, and a seam of honeysuckle and fynbos. “The red is essentially the same wine, just a different colour,” shrugs Stefan. Here, Syrah gives fleshiness, while Carignan provides backbone. Expect a nose of heady Malay spices, goji berries and liquorice, with the crunchiness of a perfectly picked plum.
“We’re taught to be so proactive in life, but a plan is only a guide,” says Stefan. “When you trust in what happens around you and you’re reactive, life starts working out. The end goal doesn’t change; it’s how you get there that does.”
