After a splendid tasting with Lukas last night, we are continuing the fun today and showing a smaller selection of his wines. Do join - they are magnificent.

From humble beginnings in 2005, as a harvest intern at Daschbosch, Lukas van Loggerenberg has become one of South Africa`s rising stars. He went on to receive a scholarship to study at Elsenberg Agricultural College, alma mater for luminaries such as Eben Sadie and Marc Kent, and graduated in 2009. He then worked a few harvests in South Africa before taking up a position in the US, where he was introduced to the world of fine wine. After a trip through the Burgundy, Champagne and (most influentially) the Loire Valley, he returned home determined to create his own expression of fine wine in his home country.

Their first vintage (Lukas is ably supported by his wife Roxanne) was 2016, and it almost went very badly wrong. Lukas suffered a nasty knee injury on New Year`s Eve and had to hobble around the vineyard in a moon boot, but they managed to get through in the end. They made 4500 bottles and four wines: Break a Leg (their Blanc de Noir, named as a cheerful nod to his injury), Kameraderie (an old-vine Chenin vineyard he was tipped off about by a friend), Geronimo (his `leap of faith` wine, a Cinsault) and Breton, his love-letter to the Loire. 2017 saw the addition of a second Chenin Blanc - Trust Your Gut - and their Syrah, Graft, which has subsequently been called the best in the country by Neal Martin. The Lotter (Franschhoek Cinsault - one of the oldest red wine vineyards in the country) was added in 2021, along with High Hopes, a Syrah-led blend from the Swartland, the idea for which came to Lukas on his sickbed as he was recovering from COVID.