Sadie Family - Treinspoor Old Vine Tinta Barocca 2020

Eben Sadie is considered one of the great visionaries and preservationists among South African winemakers. He is outspoken about his obsession with terroir and making sure the Swartland region is recognized as a place to make exceptional, authentic and highly coveted wines. 

He founded Sadie Family Wines in 1999, after establishing his career in both South Africa and wineries across the world and released his first vintage of Columella in 2000. He was one of the first to focus on creating wines that express their area, or a single vineyard, rather than blending extensively across regions which was unconventional at the time.

This site specificity along with field varietals and older vineyard parcels are the philosophy that drives the production of his two ranges of wines - The Signature Series (Columella and Palladius) and then his Old Vine Series (9 different wines). Columella is a blend of old-vine fruit from eight Swartland vineyards while Palladius is a blend of 11 varieties from 17 different vineyard sites, with old, bush-vine Chenin Blanc driving the cuvée. The Signature Series wines are the result of a project with renowned viticulturist, Rosa Kruger to discover, revitalise, and in some cases, save old vineyards throughout the Cape. These limited volume wines are produced without any additions and without much manipulation. The reds are mostly fermented whole cluster as that was the pre-1940’s vinification standard. The whites are whole bunch pressed. None of the wines are refined or altered as Eben strives to bottle the most “honest” wines that show their true character and location.

Tinta Barrocca planted on an alluvial plain in the Swartland with plenty of quartz. The capsule glistens. And adjacent to an old railway line. 50% whole cluster fermented and aged in neutral conical casks and then settled in concrete before bottling off the lees. Plum, graphite, mineral.

Spicy herbal aromatics and dark purple plum like fruit carries over into a very tight and compressed core of the wine. The tannins of Tinta Barocca have very much the same behaviour as those of Nebbiolo and proper ageing is required.

“The 2021 Blanco is a blend of varieties and places and is the first wine that expresses the special character of the Remelluri property. They used different vinification methods (concrete, foudre, barrique, all with indigenous yeasts), and the backbone here is the origin and not the process. It's not a shy white, showing power (14.14% alcohol) and the freshness of the altitude (605 to 805 meters above sea level) with a low pH (3.24). It comes from vines planted between 1989 and 2012 and is worked organically and biodynamically, with cover crops and horses. It has ripeness, notes of pollen and yellow fruit and a touch of smoke and spice, with a very balanced palate and great purity. It follows the path of elegance and freshness of the 2020, but it was a cooler and healthier vintage (in 2020, they had hail twice), and the wine shows more precision and finishes very clean. Pablo Eguzkiza compared it to 2016. 12,930 bottles produced. It was bottled in July 2023.” - 97 Points, Wine Advocate

Producer: Sadie Family 

Country: South Africa

Region: Swartland

Varietal: Tinta Barocca

Appellation: Malmesbury

Vintage: 2020

Size: 750ml