Craig Hawkins

“Craig Hawkins has long been experimenting, pushing the boundaries and finding new ways to bring us wine in its most unadulterated form.” A wonderful sound bite pinched from Roland Peens at Wine Cellar, one of Craig’s biggest retail sellers in South Africa. So it’s not surprising that his wines have an insatiable cult following among consumers, connoisseurs and sommeliers around the world primarily because the wines excel at representing site, terroir and authenticity.

‘Natural wine is simple: organically farmed at the very least in the vineyard, no added yeast or acid or tannin, in fact, nothing added except small amounts of SO2 if need be… and no fining/filtration.’ – Craig Hawkins

Testalonga El Bandito Monkey Gone to Heaven 2016, WO Swartland, 13 Abv.

This 15 year old vineyard has yielded some delicious Mourvèdre fruit from this dry 2016 vintage. But of course this variety is normally very at home with hot dry conditions and prospers successfully in the hot South of France where it needs warmth to ripen fully. This expression from the Swartland has an appealing nose of dried potpourri, black chocolate and peppermint crisp combining with aromatics of garrigue, dried herbs, thyme, sweet green peppercorns and dry fynbos. But there is also plenty of complex black berry fruit on the palate mixing with black olive tapenade, chalky mineral spice, hints of graphite and a tantalising fresh black currant herbal tea infusion on the finish. Another classic over achieving wine from Craig Hawkins. Drink now to 2028+.

(Wine Safari Score: 93+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Craig Hawkins’ interpretation of Chenin Blanc can divide opinion. Well, I love his wines. He always seems to somehow capture extra nerve, wound spring tension and vibrant freshness. There’s much more to it than merely explaining it as a result of earlier picking having tasted a lot of early picked versions that are hard, tart, one dimensional and lacking in texture and flavour complexity. No such problems for Craig’s wines.

I’ve never made a white wine myself, only red, but having followed Craig’s evolution as a winemaker, you can really see the subtle tricks he’s learnt along the way while making some “funky” whites with up to 2 years skin contact. As he always told me… “I wasn’t looking for any particular result with all the experimentation with skin contact, I just wanted to see how far I could push things … and learn something in the process.”

Well, Craig has certainly reined things in a little over the past few years, a clear sign that he has matured into a high quality, thoughtful, considerate winemaker. But importantly, he has never compromised his flair or his wines characterful natural purity and textural style. With his 2015 El Bandito Cortez, Craig has hit his zenith with Chenin Blanc.

Testalonga El Bandito Cortez Chenin Blanc 2015, 12.5 Abv.

This Chenin Blanc has a beautifully bright pale golden colour with aromas of baked crab apples, white bread drizzled with honey, incense, and tinned white peaches in syrup. Superbly expressive and complex. The palate is cool, taught and intense with Craig’s hallmark low pH feel and vibrant tension, but with perhaps a few extra layers thanks to the sublime 2015 vintage character. Plenty of racy freshness, white citrus, pithy river pebble minerality, waxy tangerine peel, fresh fennel and beautiful briney, salty sea breeze zest. This wine typifies low intervention winemaking at its very best. Decant before serving for best results. Drink from 2017 to 2030+.

(Wine Safari Score: 95/100 Greg Sherwood MW)