“The last twenty years, we realised that you only really know once you make wine from a grape what the potential of the wine can be. Life is too short to try and make everything work for everybody, you know. You can’t satisfy everybody’s taste in wine.”
Sebastian was born in Bot River soon after his family bought an old wine farm, then called Compagnes Drift, in 1974. After a few years of travel and study, Sebastian returned to the family fold in 1999. Sebastian’s passion for Chenin Blanc, Pinotage, Syrah and Mourvèdre has driven the focus of the wines, resulting in him creating one of the benchmark Chenins in South Africa, the Beaumont Hope Marguerite.
Producing wines that proudly express their Bot River origin is the key to Sebastian’s philosophy. Using very simple winemaking techniques of natural fermentation in concrete fermenters and mostly older oak, he is able to capture the purity and character of some of the 40-years and older vines. Sebastian, together with his wife Nici, will be taking the family business into the future.