Why the foundation of the SWARTLAND INDEPENDENT PRODUCERS?
What is behind the Swartland Independent Producers organisation? It represents the coming together of a group of like-minded wine-growers in the Swartland region of the Western Cape. What they share most of all, these producers, is a wish to make wines that are a true expression of their origin - of the broad landscape of the Swartland. Wines that, though coming from different cellars and sometimes different areas, will all speak of the greater landscape - wines that will, in a sense, bear the DNA of the region.
In the Old World the strongest regions have over the centuries given rise to wines with their own identities. Our experience of the Swartland tells us that it too has a marked terroir imprint on the wines coming from vines growing there.
Swartland Independent is laying down some guidelines for vineyard and cellar practices that will enhance this expression of “Swartlandness”.
The guidelines themselves will change as we learn more, but already working together like this can help a growing number of producers work together - as individuals making their own distinctive wines but also making them so as to speak about a sense of place.
