Interview - Robert Mackinley

Interview

Robert MacKinley - Export Manager, Swartland Winery

Swartland Winery. An icon of South African wines, have been flying their flag high in Asia and beyond. They have enjoyed year upon year of rich success. We sat down with their export manager Robert Mackinley to understand more.

Rob, thank you for taking this interview firstly. There are wind in the sails, that Swartland Winery 2018 wines are fantastic. Could you share with us more on what to expect for this latest vintage:

The 2018 Vintage was a very very rare vintage indeed. It is extremely concentrated. It is a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is that you will get rich, powerful and amazing wine.With lots of structure. The bad side of it is, our harvest was 50% down. So you will not get alot of this great wine. But we are really pleased with the quality. The only wine that didn't do so well this year, is the Sauvignon Blanc in our region. It was just so dry, so hot but every other varietal come out fantastic.

Bushvines. Low yield, high concentrations

That is great news, and if i were to pick 2 wines from the collection that you have. A white and a red. What wines can i pick up?

Well, the 2 classics. We are in South Africa. We are in Swartland. If you are looking for something fresh from 2018 vintage, for early drinking. We already bottled our Winemaker Chenin Blanc, the Swartland region Chenin Blanc from young Bushvines, no oak just full of passion fruit, guava. An amazing wine. And the Pinotage is still in the tank, that is a wine that is so fruity, so gorgeous we might bottle 8 months after the harvest.

What does the future hold for Swartland?

If we go according to what the journalist are saying, which is quite often a good thing to do. They have tasted wines all over the world, so they have an opinion. Journalist around the world are saying Swartland is the new Rhone. Definitely something we are experimenting more and more is single varietal Southern Rhone grapes like Roussane, Viognier, Mourvedre and Grenache. So we got some single varietals now, and we are starting to do blends with these grapes; which is proving quite popular. So it is new, it is different because in the past we were known for Merlot, Cabernet but we are trying to play this new Rhone card and see where the roads lead us to.

Swartland has been doing well around the world. What would you recommend to our readers?

The wine we sell the most of is our Contours Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot. It is 2 grapes that are very famous and very well known. Well at least, the most well known by Chinese consumers thanks to Bordeaux. Different from Bordeaux, is that our wines are that little softer. Tannins are very juicy and integrated into South African Cab/Merlot. It is easier to drink young for the consumer especially if they are not having it with food.

Swartland Landscape

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Gerard Zhang
WSET, CSW