Lubanzi is named for a wandering dog – a real mutt of sorts. He made a life for himself, and I’d venture to guess still does, accompanying travelers backpacking along the Wild Coast in the Transkei. In the years after we met Lubanzi, I’ve long thought, ‘what a life.’
We backpacked in the Transkei when we first came to South Africa as students when we were 20, and Lubanzi was an immediate companion. The dog that traipsed up to us as we set off and never left our side until the night before our final morning, likely finding another set of travelers to latch onto. If you have hiked along the Wild Coast, perhaps you have a story that reminds you of this one.
We started making wine here in 2016 – and tried to let that sense of adventure, exploration, & wanderlust be the creative engine behind everything we do; winemaking, design, and packaging. It’s a minimal intervention philosophy – in the plain-speak kind of way, not the buzzwordy one – and it applies to everything, not just the winemaking. The Swartland is fucking magnetic if you hadn’t heard – it’s easy to fall in love with it, as we did – and so we have been trying to make wines that are representative – Chenin, Rhône-style reds, Cinsault rosé. And lately, some unfined, unfiltered Pet Nat from an organic Cinsault block that is rocket juice.
Lubanzi is the story of partnerships, of community, of friends and partners who help as you fumble about, and of the path less traveled. And we hope it’s also the story about how wine can be an incredible avenue to deliver real and meaningful social impact. We built Lubanzi as a social enterprise, meaning social purpose is deeply intertwined with how and why we exist. We’re a Certified B Corp, Fair For Life Fair Trade Certified, Carbon Neutral, and a member of 1% for the Planet. We’re built to deliver resources back to largely disadvantaged communities who live and work on farms across the Winelands. Since the beginning, we partnered with The Pebbles Project to donate 50% of our profits back to the hands that made it, and over the last five years have been funding health and educational programs directly targeted at communities without whom, of course, none of this wine could possibly exist. We have supported ECD centers, training, a mobile resource center, clinic access and medical care, mobile dental programs, and so much of this is owed of course to Pebbles and their relentless energy. But also the belief in a better supply chain that so often unfairly squeezes those on the ground. We believe that investing in children in communities the way that Pebbles has is how we do better, be better, make a difference. And we’re making wines to tell that story – with heart and soul and ambition.
