We’re pumped for next week, when Craig Hawkins (Testalonga) and Mick Craven (Craven Wines) will be joining us for an evening spent exploring their transformative lineups.

Both Craig and Mick anchor a new generation of inspired South African winemakers, the product of the ‘Swartland Revolution’: an early aughts movement to produce terroir-driven, natural wines from South Africa.

A transformation as influential (or perhaps more, tbh) as ‘New California’ in the US, we’re constantly moved by the diversity and sheer deliciousness of the wines.

With the arrival of his Testalonga wines, we’re zooming in on Craig’s work. His foundation was with the greats, working for founding-father Eben Sadie and, perhaps South Africa’s greatest export, Tom Lubbe (whose wines also just landed, BTW); finally purchasing land and farming with his wife, Carla.

Their stake in the ground was to make South Africa’s first extended skin contact Chenin (a full month!); and through their work experimenting with earlier picks, new varieties and lower sulfur levels, their provocative wines are now the reference for great natural wine from South Africa.

The three wines below highlight the feeling that (outside of the Loire Valley, of course) South African Chenin is the best in the world.

2022 Testalonga 'I Am The Ninja' Methode Ancestrale, $30
A very delicious, textural pet nat, full of bruised apple varietal character. From a 64 year old sandstone vineyard on Piketberg Mountain, fermented in stainless steel, aged in bottle for a year, disgorged October 2023. No sulfur added.

2023 Testalonga 'Stay Brave' Chenin Blanc, $25
Salty and bright, citrusy skin-contact Chenin. From an organic bush vine site on Paardeberg (the granitic mountain where Eben Sadie first sourced his fruit), planted in 1981 and abandoned until the Hawkins brought it back to life in 2014. 100% destemmed and fermented in fiberglass tank with two weeks of skin contact; aged 11 months in fiberglass and bottled with a light filtration and sulfuring.

2022 Testalonga 'Cortez' Chenin Blanc, $45
Oh, delicious leesy Chenin! From an organic bush vine site planted in 1972. Whole bunch pressed and fermented in a mix of old 500L French puncheons and stainless steel; aged 11 months on the gross lees and bottled with light filtration and sulfuring.

SHOP TESTALONGA