Luddite Wines
Niels and Penny met at a friend’s 21st birthday party in 1985, where they discovered that they were both going to be attending Elsenburg Agricultural College in the new year. They became close friends at college, and romance blossomed late one night cramming for exams. He passed, she failed, but they’re still together. On finishing their studies, a desire to make wine but with no access to vineyards (these were the dark days in South Africa), Penny and Niels left the country in 1989.
1995 saw the Verburg family return to South Africa from Europe. Niels had worked as a flying winemaker in France, Chili, New Zealand and Australia, and even managed to make wine in Greece. A longing to work on a small farm led them to Bot River. After 8 vintages at Beaumont, they moved up the hill to a 16 hectare patch of land.
Thirty years later, with three kids and six dogs, the Verburgs are happy on their hill, and Luddite wines has evolved into an established and respected brand.
wines on allocation
Luddite Wines are only available on allocation. Please reach out to us for pricing and quantity available.
Luddite Shiraz
Some people describe Luddite Shiraz as Niels Verburg contained in a glass; Niels is six foot four and his smile is the embodiment of a warm embrace.
As a young winemaker traveling the world, Niels confirmed his love for Shiraz when working a harvest in Australia, but it was a winery in Chile that inspired his wine-making method. “It was as if I’d gone back 20 years; it was ramshackle and chaotic, but they had great fruit and passion and I’d never seen that quality of wine”, he explains.
Luddite Chenin
Chenin Blanc is a grape close to the Luddites’ heart, so they couldn’t resist making their own. Luddite Chenin 2012 was their first vintage.
The Luddite Chenin is a real ‘push the boat out’ wine. Niels wanted to express the nature of Chenin Blanc in the Bot River area, and batches of free run juice and pressed juice were put in barrels without settling and allowed to ferment naturally. He also did a batch of fermentation on skins with regular punch downs.
Old barrels allowed the natural grape expression to come through, and no sulphur was added to allow the wine to develop its own characteristics without any intervention. The Luddites feel by doing this they have allowed the wine to express exactly the direction it wanted to go.
Saboteur Red
With the Saboteur Red, the style is unashamedly new world where we are going for crunchy, juicy fruit balanced by vibrant tannins. This contrasts nicely with the Luddite Shiraz which is more classic in style. The red blend will always be Shiraz driven with a Rhone slant.
The buzz word for us is balance and therefore the blend percentages will change depending on the vintage. It will always contain Shiraz, Mourvédre and, hopefully in the future, some Grenache Noir. The fruit is sourced from Bot River and neighbouring wine regions making a wine of origin Cape South Coast.
Saboteur White
2015 was the maiden vintage of the Saboteur White blend, created to partner the successful Saboteur Red blend.
Niels set out to make a white blend that was both serious and refreshing. It’s a Chenin Blanc based blend with different percentages of Viognier and Blanc Fumé, depending on the vintage. And it turns out that this new wine, with its new closure and new packaging, was an excellent tribute to the Saboteurs…it sold out within 3 days.
The grapes for the Saboteur range are sourced from Bot River and the neighbouring wine regions, making it a wine of origin Cape South Coast. Although the blends varied in 2016 and 2017, the vintages have lived up to the precedent set by the maiden vintage and have received great reviews (and excellent sales!).