Reyneke Wines

The Free Bacchus Story

Stellenbosch built its commercial identity on technically polished Cabernet and Merlot, and it does that extremely well. Johan Reyneke converted his Polkadraai Hills estate to biodynamics in the early 2000s, which placed him at a deliberate remove from his own appellation's central proposition.

Reyneke studied environmental ethics at Stellenbosch University and began farming in 1998. The conversion followed from an academic position rather than a commercial one.

He became one of the first Stellenbosch producers to hold both Demeter and Ecocert certification. The estate farms mainly Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon on decomposed granite and sandstone, with Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc alongside, and runs a genuinely closed-loop system of cover cropping, composting and integrated livestock, which Demeter requires and which Reyneke has held through difficult harvests as well as easy ones.

The Reserve Red and Reserve White have drawn 95 points from Wine Advocate. The Cornerstone Cabernet Sauvignon is the most direct statement: a Stellenbosch Cabernet from biodynamic farming, made in the appellation where the assumption runs strongest that the best Cabernet requires conventional viticulture.

Most of his regional peers regard this farming as economically impractical, and they are not being unreasonable: it costs more and yields less. The wines are the argument he has chosen to make in response, which is the only kind that tends to change minds.