Swerwer Shiraz, Swartland '23

Jasper Wickens draws inspiration from wine regions around the world, but his wines are definitive expressions of South Africa and, more specifically, the granite soils of the Paardeberg. After earning a bachelor’s degree in viticulture and oenology from Stellenbosch University, he traveled to Napa, which at the time felt to him like the pinnacle of winemaking. That perspective changed when he began working with Adi Badenhorst in the Swartland in 2009. As Jasper has said, “Adi Badenhorst brought me down to earth, really fast and hard,” teaching him that understanding vineyards and getting his hands dirty were far more important than technology or polish.

During the South African offseason, Jasper continued traveling, working among the ancient, steep slate vineyards of Priorat and alongside the fiercely individualistic Tom Lubbe at Matassa in the Roussillon. He founded Swerwer in 2012, taking the name from an Afrikaans word meaning “wanderer,” a reference to the itinerant life of young winemakers chasing harvests around the world. Today, Jasper and his wife, Franziska, are based at her family’s Waterval Farm, where he makes the wines in a renovated century old cellar.

The 2023 Shiraz comes from a Paardeberg vineyard rooted in deep, decomposed granite, which gives the wine a very different profile from the broader, more powerful Shiraz found elsewhere in the Swartland. It is fermented entirely as whole bunches with indigenous yeasts and gentle extraction, then raised in old oak without the influence of new wood. As with all the Swerwer wines, it is made with minimal intervention, no fining, and only light filtration.

The wine is earthy, savory, and beautifully aromatic, with notes of violets, ripe plum, red currant, cured meat, black pepper, dried fynbos, and oil cured olives. The palate is medium bodied and energetic, with firm tannins, dark fruit, and a distinctly salty finish. This is a dynamic and highly individual expression of Shiraz that could only come from the Swartland. Try it with braised lamb over polenta.