Wine personality of the day

Eben Sadie started his winemaking career working for Charles Back’s Spice Route before going out on his own, setting up Sadie Family Wines in 1999. Since his Columella wine was first released with the 2000 vintage, his reputation as the most innovative and brilliant winemaker in South Africa has been unchallenged. His philosophy is to produce that reflect the terroir of a region or specific site. These ideas are behind the production of his Columella and Palladius Signature Series wines. Columella is one of South Africa’s best wines, if not the best, and is a blend of old-vine grapes from eight Swartland vineyards, the wine then spends 24 months in oak (of which only a small proportion is new). Eben’s white wine, Palladius, is equally, if not more, impressive. It is a delightful blend of 11 varieties from 17 different vineyard sites, with old, bush-vine Chenin Blanc at its heart. Eben is seen as one of the greatest winemakers in South Africa’s current crop of ‘Rock stars’, with wines regularly winning awards and accolades including an amazing 99 points for his ’T Voetpad 2017 from Tim Atkin in his South Africa report.