Marieke van der Walt
Klipkop Wines · Hemel-en-Aarde
Twenty-two harvests on the same clay-and-shale ridge, and she still walks every row before she picks.
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Smart About Wine
People. Place. Wine.
South African wine through the eyes of a winemaker and photographer.
Wine makes more sense when you know the story.
South African wine is about far more than what is in the bottle. It is about the people who make it. The place it comes from.
The vineyard. The cellar. The choices. The craft. The food. The experience.
Smart About Wine tells these stories through photography, film, interviews, travel and accessible wine education.
The founder
The winemaker behind the lens.
Johan Botha is a trained winemaker, professional photographer, educator and visual storyteller.
He combines formal wine knowledge with almost three decades of photographic experience.
He understands the technical story behind the wine and the human story behind the bottle.
Meet the Winemaker
The people behind South African wine.
Smart Wine Stories
Read the wine country.
- People
- Place
- Wine
- Food
- Travel
- Harvest
- Vineyard
- Cellar
Wine · Bot River
What the glass cannot tell you
A wine is a series of decisions made by a person you have never met. Here is how to taste those decisions.
5 min read
Food · Stanford
A table under the oaks
In Stanford, lunch is still a three-hour institution. We photographed one from first bottle to last plate.
4 min read
Explore wine country
Five regions to begin with, and a country to come.
Start in the Overberg and the cool south, where the wines are precise and the roads are quiet.
Hemel-en-Aarde
Cool ridges above Walker Bay
Pinot Noir, Chardonnay
Bot River
Wind, fynbos and honest wine
Syrah, Chenin Blanc
Stanford
A village that eats and drinks well
Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir
Elgin
Cloud, apples and cool-climate whites
Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Noir
Cape Agulhas
The southernmost vineyards in Africa
Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Syrah
Coming next
More of South Africa
Stellenbosch. Franschhoek. Paarl. Constantia. Swartland. Robertson. Breedekloof.
Smart Wine Journeys
Discover wine country differently.
Private and small-group experiences for travellers who want more than a standard tasting route.
Meet the Makers
Full day, 7 to 8 hours · 2 to 6 guests
Visit selected estates and meet the people behind the wine, in the cellar and in the vineyard.
View Journey
Wine + Food
Full day, 7 hours · 2 to 8 guests
A curated day of wine, food and beautiful places, paced properly.
View Journey
Wine + Photography
Full day, sunrise start · 2 to 4 guests
Photography, vineyards, landscape and wine, led by a working photographer.
View JourneySmart Wine Studio
Make your wine farm worth discovering.
Photography, film, drone and editorial content created by someone who understands wine.
- Photography
- Video
- Drone
- Social Content
- Editorial
- Smart Wine Content Day
Smart Wine School
Wine words without the nonsense.
Short videos and simple explanations that make wine easier to understand and more enjoyable to drink.
Vineyard
What is terroir?
Soil, slope, climate and the human habits of a place — explained without the mysticism.
1 min
Winemaking
Why does oak matter?
What a barrel actually does to wine, and why new oak is not a compliment.
2 min
Harvest
Why do winemakers pick at night?
Cold fruit, clean aromatics and less work for the cellar the next morning.
1 min
Winemaking
What happens during fermentation?
Sugar, yeast, heat and time — the least glamorous miracle in wine.
2 min
Watch
Watch Smart About Wine.
Meet the Winemaker. Smart About Wine. One Minute Wine School.
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Meet the Winemaker
Embed the latest episode from the Smart About Wine channel.
Video coming soon
Smart About Wine
Embed the latest episode from the Smart About Wine channel.
Video coming soon
One Minute Wine School
Embed the latest episode from the Smart About Wine channel.
Newsletter
One great wine story at a time.
Winemaker interviews, region guides and quiet corners of South African wine country, sent occasionally and never in bulk.
