Zwartwater

Zwartwater was founded in 2024 by Stefan Johannes on the historic Lammershoek farm in the Paardeberg, a granite outcrop in the Swartland first granted in 1718.

The Paardeberg is the heart of the Swartland revolution. Its decomposed granite soils are poor and free-draining, and the old dry-farmed bush vines rooted in them crop very little, which is exactly why a generation of winemakers rediscovered the area in the 2000s and turned a region long dismissed as bulk wine country into South Africa's most interesting.

The wines are Rhone-inflected: Chenin Blanc with Marsanne and Viognier for the white, Syrah with Mourvedre and Carignan for the red, which is the modern Swartland palette. A very young project on very old ground.