2024 Sadie Family Treinspoor, Swartland

This spicy, brooding yet pure wine has aromas of licorice, violets, blackberries, cranberries, graphite and hints of fennel. It’s medium- to full-bodied, firm and focused, with fantastic spicy undertones. Lots of structure. Tight and firm finish. Tinta barroca from 50-year-old vines. Try after 2026.

96 points jamessuckling.com

Sadie Family Treinspoor from Swartland is a captivating, dark edged and deeply savoury expression of Tinta Barroca from a single historic vineyard near the old railway line that gives the wine its name. These dry grown bush vines dig deep into decomposed granite and slate, soils that lend both brooding structure and a fine mineral thread. The warm days and cooling Atlantic and mountain winds of the northern Swartland allow the fruit to ripen fully while retaining just enough freshness to keep the wine poised. Eben Sadie works with immense restraint: whole cluster ferments, native yeasts, gentle extraction and ageing in large old foudres so the vineyard’s voice speaks clearly. The result is a wine that blends Iberian depth with unmistakable South African soul.

The nose brings black cherry, mulberry and dark plum layered with violets, rosemary and black olive. Beneath the fruit sits a complex web of earthy and wild elements: crushed rock, dried lavender, sun baked herbs, tea leaf, cocoa and graphite. There is a smoky, ferrous mineral note too, straight from the slate strewn slopes where the vines struggle. As air works through the wine, hints of fig, pepper and warm tar appear, creating a sense of quiet power.

The palate is firm, textural and beautifully structured. Juicy dark fruits move across taut, elegant tannins that feel chiselled and detailed rather than heavy. Flavours of blackcurrant, plum skin, blueberry and dried cranberries mingle with savoury notes of cured meat, licorice, iron rich earth and bay leaf. Bright acidity keeps everything lifted, guiding the wine into a long, clean finish marked by spice, fruit and stony persistence. Treinspoor has superb ageing potential: over eight to fifteen years it becomes more hauntingly complex, gaining truffle, cigar leaf and dried floral nuance while retaining its mineral core.

Brilliant with chargrilled lamb, beef short ribs, mushroom and thyme dishes, chorizo or tapas, aged gouda or Manchego, roasted root vegetables or slow braised oxtail. It is a wine that rewards patience, a study in texture and terroir from one of the most thoughtful hands in the Cape.