2022 Sadie Family Swartland Columella

Highly Rated
A benchmark red blend from South Africa's Swartland, this wine showcases Eben Sadie's meticulous craftsmanship and the region's unparalleled diversity through its multi-vineyard, multi-varietal expression of finesse, complexity, and age-worthy structure.
5.0
Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars
1 Review

Price:
Sale price$345.00
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In stock, ready to ship, only 2 units left
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Description

The 2022 Columella is a masterclass in blending, representing the Swartland’s diverse terroir and Eben Sadie’s relentless pursuit of quality. Sourced from 12 vineyards spanning granite, slate, gravel, and sandstone soils, the wine brings together Syrah, Mourvèdre, Grenache, Carignan, Tinta Barocca, Cinsault, and a touch of Pinotage to capture the essence of this unique region.

This vintage balances elegance and power, with Sadie employing increasingly gentle winemaking techniques to preserve freshness and detail. Grapes are meticulously hand-sorted before gentle basket-pressing and ageing in old oak barrels and foudres, ensuring a wine of incredible purity and structure. The result is a wine of unforced intensity, vibrant energy, and a texture that promises decades of evolution in the cellar.

Columella has long been regarded as one of South Africa’s greatest reds, and this 2022 iteration only strengthens that reputation. A blend of complexity, finesse, and longevity, it is a testament to Sadie’s unrivalled vision and the Swartland’s potential to produce world-class wines. With its tiny allocations, securing a bottle of this remarkable wine is an achievement in itself.

99 points
"The lightest-bodied Columella ever, yet retaining incredible concentration and intensity... a brilliant vintage of one of the world's greatest reds with lilac, fynbos, rose petal aromas, and a focused, grippy, stony finish."
- Tim Atkin MW (South Africa Report 2024)

98 points
"Deep, seductive aromas of violets, green tea, coffee beans, oranges, mulberries, peach pits, and smoked paprika spring from the glass. Seamless, layered, and incredibly complex, with medium body, polished tannins, and lovely brightness of fruit. Floral sweetness graces the mid-palate, leading to a focused finish. Fantastic."
- Claire Nesbitt (James Suckling)

99 points - "This is the lightest bodied Columella ever, according to Eben Sadie, but he's not lost any concentration or intensity at the lower alcohol level. Sourced from 12 different vineyards, seven of which are on the Paardeberg, this features components from slate, gravel, granite and sandstone soils and is a brilliant vintage of one of the world's greatest reds. Partnering Syrah, Mourvèdre, Grenache, Carignan, Cinsault, Tinta Barocca and Pinotage, this is an almost indecently perfumed cuvée with lilac, fynbos and rose petal aromas, plum, red cherry and blackberry fruit, subtle 5% new wood and a focused, grippy, stony finish. Wonderful stuff." - Tim Atkin MW (South Africa Report 2024)

98 points - "Deep, seductive aromas of violets, green tea, coffee beans, oranges, mulberries, peach pits, and smoked paprika spring from the glass. Seamless, layered, and incredibly complex, with medium body, polished tannins, and lovely brightness of fruit. Floral sweetness graces the mid-palate, leading to a focused finish. Fantastic." - Claire Nesbitt (James Suckling)

Customer Reviews

5.0
Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars
Based on 1 review
Total 5 star reviews: 1 Total 4 star reviews: 0 Total 3 star reviews: 0 Total 2 star reviews: 0 Total 1 star reviews: 0
1 review
  • DF
    David F.
    Verified Buyer
    Wine Knowledge Level Enthusiast
    1 year ago
    Wine Knowledge Level Enthusiast
    2020 Sadie Family Swartland Columella
    Reviewing
    2020 Sadie Family Swartland Columella
    Rated 5 out of 5 stars
    High End South African Red Blend

    Interesting blend of Mourvèdre,Syrah,Grenache,Carignan and Cinsault.Real red cherry fruit with amazing red colour.Big nose!

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Swartland. First released in 2000, Columella is Sadie’s most famous wine. While it’s regularly described as an icon of Swartland (and indeed South Africa), Eben Sadie’s goal is simply to produce the finest, most honest expression he can from Swartland as a whole. As such, the blend includes six of the seven official red grapes that grow in the region. The 2022 is a blend of one-quarter Syrah, with the remainder a blend of Mourvèdre, Grenache, Carignan, Tinta Barocca and Cinsault. Eben notes that the incremental growth of Mourvèdre, Carignan, Cinsault and Tinta Barocca in the final blend has contributed to the depth and complexity of tannins and that there is also more fruit purity.

Eben also wants to capture as many Swartland soils and climates as possible. This year, the grapes came from seven soil types (including granite, slate, gravel and sandstone) across 11 separate vineyards in Paardeberg, Kasteelberg, Malmesbury and Piquetberg. Most are low-yielding, old-vine parcels, although some of the estate’s younger material also plays its part. Many of the Syrah vines have been trained to their stake (échalas style, per Northern Rhône).

Most of the fruit is destemmed, although an increasing percentage of bunches are used each year. Sadie has a sorting team of 25 who discard 8 to 15% of the fruit each year. The grapes go into a huge open fermenter for an average of three weeks on skins before being basket-pressed into primarily old French oak barrels (less than 5% new). After a year on lees, the wine is racked into seasoned oval casks (foudres) for further maturation on the fine lees. The wine is then bottled without fining or filtration.

A quick note on the history and evolution of this wine. The wine was a predominantly Syrah blend with Mourvèdre in its first decade. Over the years, specifically since 2009, Sadie has introduced ever-increasing amounts of the other varieties. The fruit is also picked earlier, and the winemaking has progressed. Before 2009, the style was geared towards power and extraction, maximising depth of colour, flavour and tannin. Post-2009, the maceration has become progressively gentler to the point where the cap is simply kept wet, mainly via handheld jugs. The amount of new oak has also decreased radically. It is no coincidence that these changes happened around the same time that Sadie was experimenting with similar techniques at Terroir al Límit in Priorat.

Columella is nonetheless a more powerful, complex wine than those in the District Series, with unforced intensity and a corresponding increase in texture and ripeness. We recommend decanting, and Sadie suggests a minimum of eight years in the cellar before opening. Good luck with that! Bottled with just 13.2% alcohol, it has the finesse, sappiness and vibrancy of great Burgundy (from a powerful year) and the depth and structure to live for decades. According to its maker, the 2022 is textbook Columella (with all this entails). More than ever, here we have one of the world's greatest blended red wines.

Price Bracket $101 and Above
Type Red
Body Full Bodied
Variety Shiraz
Country South Africa
Region Swartland
Feature High Score
Reviewed By James Suckling
Critic Score 99
98
Size 750ml
Vintage 2022
Closure Cork

Sadie Family Wines

One of the tearaway producers of the revitalised Swartland wine scene, Sadie Family Wines has had an astronomical rise to fame on the international stage.

Owner and winemaker, Eben Sadie, first found acclaim under the banner of Terroir Al Limit where he was a co-founder alongside Dominik Huber. In the same way that Terroir Al Limit helped redefine what wine could taste like from Priorat in Spain, Sadie handles his family wines and vines with that same ruthless attention to detail.

These wines perfectly articulate a sense of place. Sadie's transparency in winemaking and obsessive farming practices reveal intense, tightly-wound wines with distinct personality. These are now some of South Africa's most keenly sought-after artisan wines. Worldwide allocations are minuscule and hotly contested. As little as a handful of bottles make it to Australia each year. Secure these rare birds while you can.

Eben Sadie in the vineyard Sadie Family Wines

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