Occasionally we are lucky enough to stumble across a bright, exciting young producer whose approach and attitude immediately instils confidence. Rarer though, is realising that they have yet to release their first vintage and their delicious, characterful and terroir driven wines are still a tiny, part-time project. For the time being at least. Well, this is exactly what happened when we met Jolandie Fouché in 2019. A Swartland native, Fouche’s goal is to produce wines that reflect her origins in a style “that I like to drink myself.” For now just two wines, the Chenin Blanc is a 50/50 blend of granite and iron based vineyards, which combines freshness with aromatics, while the Pinotage is a long way from your average overworked example, coming from 49 year old dry-farmed bush vines planted on granite. Produced firmly in the new wave style, Jolandie includes 25% whole bunches in the fermentation, with the balance whole berries to maximise fruit purity and perfume. The cap is wet once a day with no punch downs whatsoever - a very gentle approach to avoid extracting tannin. Both wines are fermented naturally and bottled after 10-11 months in neutral 300L cask, unfined and unfiltered. 2018 was the first vintage of this exciting new project and we are delighted to be the first to bring these wines to the UK. Dubbed Tim Atkin MW’s “Most Exciting White Wine Discovery of the Year” in 2019, Jolandie Fouche is going places, and will soon be adding new cultivars to create a small but beautifully formed range. Reflecting on the name for her project, Jolandie took inspiration from the poet Clarissa Pinkola Estés whose work includes the line: “Some days I am more wolf than woman, and I am still learning how to stop apologising for my wild”.