Welcome to the Ex Animo Wine Co Podcast: a series of interviews and discussions with winemakers and great minds from the world of wine. In this episode, David Clarke chats with the powerhouse couple of South African Cap Classiques: Ann and Pieter Ferreira. The pair have been at the forefront of fine sparkling wine, and their knowledge and understanding of the style is unparalleled. *A video version of this interview is available on YouTube ..read more

Welcome to the Ex Animo Wine Co Podcast: a series of interviews and discussions with winemakers and great minds from the world of wine. In this episode, David Clarke chats with Ex Animo producers across the Western Cape to check how their harvests are progressing. This podcast was recorded in February 2024 ..read more

Welcome to the Ex Animo Wine Co Podcast: a series of interviews and discussions with winemakers and great minds from the world of wine. In this episode, David Clarke chats with Winemag.co.za Editor and Wine Reviewer, Christian Eedes. This is the third annual Wine SONA (State of the Nation) discussion. In it, David poses questions to Christian about the state of SA wine in 2024, such as: What was the most surprising in the world of SA wine in 2023 What is Christian most looking forward to in 2024 What were Christian's 'finds' of 2023 What changed in 2023 Christian's current take on 2020, 2021 a ..read more

*A video version of this interview is available on YouTube* Welcome to the Ex Animo Wine Co Podcast: a series of interviews and discussions with winemakers and great minds from the world of wine. In this episode, David Clarke brings together four winemakers from the Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley who specialise in Pinot Noir. The microclimate of the valley makes this one of the finest sites in South Africa to grow Pinot Noir - producing globally recognised wines of excellence. David and the Upper Hemel-en-Aarde crew chat about what makes the valley unique, why Pinot Noir does so well here and how ..read more

*A video version of this interview is available on YouTube* Welcome to the Ex Animo Wine Co Podcast: a series of interviews and discussions with winemakers and great minds from the world of wine. In this episode, David Clarke talks with Craig Hawkins of the groundbreaking natural wine label TESTALONGA. Loved for his relaxed approach to wine making, Craig is one of THE names in natural wine in South Africa, if not in the New World. Craig talks about his journey into winemaking, discovering natural wines for the first time, how he experimented with different methods and what he’s learnt along th ..read more

Today on the podcast we have Julien Schaal, winemaker and owner of Julien Schaal wines. He is based in Alsace and exclusively works with Grand Cru Rieslings there. He first visited South Africa in the early 2000s when he worked as a cellar hand for Bouchard Finlayson. During that time a friendship developed with Gordon Newton-Johnson and an opportunity to produce his own South African wine was proposed. Julien has been coming to South Africa to make his Chardonnay and Syrah wines ever since. I wanted to chat to Julien about the similarities and differences in making wine in Alsace and South Af ..read more

Today on the podcast we have Bernhard Bredell, winemaker and owner of Scions of Sinai – he made the first wines from the 2016 vintage and is based in southern Stellenbosch. The Bredells have been in the shadow of the Helderberg making wine for seven generations, and their port-styled wines are legendary. Unfortunately the farm was sold before Bernhard had a chance to take over and he went to work for the Winery of Good Hope and did stints in Cote-Rotie and Priorat. The Scions of Sinai project was born from a desire to save some of the old vineyards Bernhard’s grandfather planted as they were b ..read more

***NB*** We are in the middle of a government enforced lockdown here in South Africa where the sale and movement of wine is, at least for now, forbidden. So to keep ourselves busy we have decided to release a new podcast episode every day during lockdown. Today on the podcast we have Tegan Passalacqua who is based in California and is the director of winemaking at Turley Wine Cellars, a producer specialising in old vine wines, with zinfandel being a particular focus. He is also the owner/winemaker of Sandlands, his own project, which looks to highlight interesting and unique vineyards. My wife ..read more

***NB*** We are in the middle of a government enforced lockdown here in South Africa where the sale and movement of wine is, at least for now, forbidden. So to keep ourselves busy we have decided to release a new podcast episode every day during lockdown. Today on the podcast we have Lukas van Loggerenberg, winemaker and owner of Van Loggerenberg Wines – a wine brand based in Stellenbosch which, with a few others like Reenen Borman and Mick and Jeanine Craven, has been leading a renaissance in that region over the last 4-5 years. Previous to the emergence this group (and others) a lot of the i ..read more

***A quick note on the quality of the audio, we are in lockdown at the moment in South Africa and we are relying on the internet to record these podcasts, and they don’t always behave. We have done what we can to make it listenable as possible.*** Kalmoesfontein: vines, vermouth, parrots, rooibos, agave and Abruzzo with Adi Badenhorst Today on the podcast we have Adi Badenhorst, one of the Swartland Revolutionaries –he is the main force and winemaker behind Badenhorst Family Vineyards where they make some fantastic wine. But I didn’t really want to talk about the wine per se on this episode wi ..read more