Sadie Family Citrusdal Mountain Soldaat 2024

“Sliced strawberries, pomegranates, rose hips, orange rind and wet stones on the nose of this supremely elegant, fragrant red. Sour cherries, too. It’s medium-bodied, very fresh and silky, with very fine tannins, seamless but present. Persistent and salty at the end. Great expression of grenache. Fermented and aged in concrete.” 97 points, JamesSuckling.com

“Erasmus van Zyl’s farm in Piekenierskloof, located on quartz and sandstone soils, supplies the grapes for this ethereal old-vine Grenache, described by Eben Sadie as “transparent.” Fermented with 30% whole-clusters, it has aromas of fresh earth and Campari spices, flavours of pomegranate and red cherry, remarkable freshness and some underlying tannic grip. 2027-32.” 96 points, Tim Atkin MW, South Africa Special Report 2025

The Soldaat is 100% Grenache from a parcel of 55-year-old vines in the highland Piekenierskloof Ward (just shy of the Swartland catchment, going north to Citrusdal). The vineyard got its name from the foot soldiers (piekeniers) who once used this area as a lookout. Sadie’s east-facing parcel sits around 780 metres—one of the Cape’s highest elevations—and the soil is decomposed granite. The vines here are unirrigated and still on their own roots.

Eben notes that The Piekenierskloof Pass has firmly positioned itself as the leading location for Cape Grenache, capable of giving vibrant, perfumed wines with lifted red fruit, smoky, spicy notes and earthy minerality. This wine calls to mind the elegant, perfumed Garnachas from Gredos and San Martín de Valdeiglesias in the Madrid highlands, yet with precision and class all its own. “The entire wine is an exhibition of elegance,” says Eben.

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