First release: Van Loggerenberg 2025

This is the only wine of Lukas van Loggerenberg’s exhilarating range that is not from a granite vineyard, instead coming from a schist-based site in the Swartland. Sourced from his good buddy Donovan Rall, this has always been syrah with a splash of grenache since its debut in 2021, but the 2025 is entirely syrah since ‘it was so good’ Lukas had to bottle it on its own. Aged in second- and third-fill 500-litre French barrels, this has the fresh rawness of the grapes arriving at the cellar during harvest, with a smoky lapsang-souchong tea character, black and even green olive tapenade and a violet top note. It’s already so complex and compelling, with an incredible tannin presence and, unusually for this Swartland vineyard, a whisper of white-pepper spice coming through. This could be approached on arrival, but you will definitely get the best from it if you wait until 2028 and beyond. Drink from 2028 to 2036. 13.5%

Trust Your Gut was one of the standout wines of a fabulous Van Loggerenberg line-up in 2024, which Lukas declared a game-changing vintage for the wine, incorporating a Piekenierskloof component from the magical Tierhoek farm for the first time. And in 2025 it is again spectacular! The aromas are fascinating, with wild herbs, orange zest, apricot, yellow peach, and an earthy, rooibos tea-leaf scent (so evocative of the Piekenierskloof). The fruit on the palate is ebullient and underpinned by a delicious saltiness. Very focused and perhaps holding more tension than the 2024, there is the moreish grip of tannin on the long, precise finish. This year, Lukas upped the Tierhoek component slightly, meaning that the final blend of all old-vine dryland chenin comprises 40% fruit from the Paardeberg in the Swartland, 40% from Piekenierskloof and 20% from Karibib in the Polkadraai Hills. This wine should not be seen as a second wine to Kamaraderie, it’s a hugely charismatic, thrilling chenin in its own right. Drink from 2027 to 2035. 13%

Lukas van Loggerenberg's love of Loire cabernet franc is clear to see in his Breton, the old word for the variety in the Loire. Sourced from two excellent Stellenbosch sites farmed, respectively, by Pierre Winshaw, next door to Meerlust in the Eerste River Valley (comprising 70%), and Danie Carinus in the Polkadraai Hills (30%), this has a spicy perfume, with something like a kick of jalapeno pepper, combined with redcurrants and just-ripe red cherries as well as tomato leaf. As Lukas said, ‘2025 was Stellenbosch’s year for Bordeaux varieties,’ with the cooler season allowing for a longer hang time and more development of flavour complexity, and this is just a fantastic rendition of Breton. There is a generosity to the fruit concentration, balanced with brisk, revitalising acidity. The tannins bear the signature finesse of the vintage (a specific characteristic of Bordeaux varieties in Stellenbosch in 2025), fine-grained and detailed. Stylistically sitting right in the middle of what would appeal to a Loire drinker and a right-bank Bordeaux drinker, this shows more and more graphite and tobacco leaf on the palate with aeration. A beautiful cabernet franc, from the man who has seriously changed the South African mindset of what this grape variety is capable of. Drink from 2029 to 2038. 13.5%

From the second oldest red wine vineyard in South Africa, planted in 1932 and fast approaching its centenary, the 2025 Lötter has a startlingly beautiful perfume (it’s difficult to drag yourself past nosing the wine to taking a sip, it’s so arresting) of rose petals, Italian herbs, ripe red and black cherry, pink peppercorn, pomegranate, and something sanguinous, perhaps carpaccio. Dry and spicy on the palate, this has wonderful fruit intensity, comparable to the heart-breakingly tiny 2024 vintage, with a very fine and chalk-powder-like tannin texture and a sappy edge. Carrying the ‘clarity and purity of fruit’ which Lukas sees as a hallmark of the 2025 vintage, it’s a gorgeous wine and thankfully a little more was produced than in 2024, when only one barrel was made. This is a wine, surprisingly perhaps, which lovers of Piedmontese reds will adore, not dissimilar to a young Barbaresco. One for keeping. Drink from 2029 to 2037. 13%

Kamaraderie chenin blanc was one of the four wines Lukas van Loggerenberg started with when he launched his range a full decade ago now, with the 2016 vintage; it is named for the joyful and contagious camaraderie found in the South African wine industry, the collaborative spirit that has amazed and endeared all who have encountered it. Linear and taut with tight-rope tension this vintage, this is a chenin which demands time. It reverberates with energy and has this wonderful pithy grip bringing textural complexity and interest. Precise with very pure and luminous fruit – white peach, lemon and yellow apple – and a twist of lemon-balm or wild thyme, this was matured predominantly in concrete (circa 85%) with one 500-litre French oak barrel. The majority of the fruit for Kamaraderie this year came from old vines on the granitic soils of the superb Lammershoek farm, next door to Eben Sadie on the Swartland’s Paardeberg mountain. Tasted alongside the 2021 Kamaraderie in a mini vertical, the 2025 shares a great likeness with that electric vintage, and will likely start to come into its prime drinking window in 2030. Drink from 2028 to 2035. 13%

From a specific parcel on the Karibib farm that is considered a grand cru of Stellenbosch syrah and made with 100% whole clusters (65% in concrete and 35% in second-fill 500-litre French barrels), this is super-charged with peppery perfume this vintage; the aromatic just pops, with white and pink pepper especially, and a sprinkling of freshly-ground black pepper, too – all the pepper in short! Lukas says you can smell the spice as you walk into the vineyard in harvest time and since the beginning in the 2017 vintage, this vineyard has always tasted like it smells. 2025 saw the latest pick ever here for Lukas – there was just no rush with the near-perfect conditions – and yet the alcohol came in the lowest ever at 13.8%. This is so detailed and elegant, with high-definition red-berry fruit and all of that spice coming through on the palate too. This has energy, verve and mouthcoating fine powdery tannins. It’s such a distinctive, exciting syrah, and this is a phenomenal vintage. Drink from 2029 to 2038. 13.8%

From ‘amazing granite soils’ close to the ocean on the Bredell’s Rustenhof farm, which Lukas describes as ‘the HQ of fantastic cinsault,’ Geronimo saw 75% whole-bunch fermentation this vintage, more than usual, and is wonderfully expressive with fennel and aniseed fragrance and plump raspberry fruit. Back to a red-fruit expression, with that signature pomegranate character, after the darker 2024 vintage, this has delicate, almost ethereal tannins in 2025 and a chalky texture. Aged in a combination of 500-litre barrels and concrete, the concrete component has increased to 40% now, which Lukas says ‘emphasises the energy of Rustenhof’s granitic soils.’ This will be deliciously drinkable on arrival but waiting around three to four years after vintage for Geronimo is always a good plan. The 2021 vintage, for example, is drinking superbly now at five years’ old. Drink from 2027 to 2033. 13%

Drink from 2028 to 2033A three-bottle case containing one bottle of each of the following:Van Loggerenberg Trust Your Gut Chenin Blanc, Western Cape 2025Van Loggerenberg Geronimo Cinsault, Stellenbosch 2025Van Loggerenberg High Hopes Syrah, Swartland 2025

Notes PDF

Drink from 2029 to 2035A six-bottle case containing one bottle of each of the following:Van Loggerenberg Trust Your Gut Chenin Blanc, Western Cape 2025Van Loggerenberg Kamaraderie Chenin Blanc, Swartland 2025Van Loggerenberg High Hopes Syrah, Swartland 2025Van Loggerenberg Graft Syrah, Polkadraai Hills 2025Van Loggerenberg Breton Cabernet Franc, Stellenbosch 2025Van Loggerenberg Lötter Cinsault, Franschhoek 2025

Notes PDF