The City of Oaks, or Eikestad as it’s known is one of South Africa’s oldest towns, Cape Dutch architecture reigns supreme, old vines are rooted deep, and the two most important winemaker breeding grounds are here, Elsenburg and Stellenbosch University.
But interlaced with all this tradition is plenty of innovation too. Artisan bakers, boundary pushing chefs, contemporary design and hip eateries aplenty add life and rhythm to the immutable backdrop. On a busy corner I find one such place, The Green Goose Eatery, looking as fresh as a daisy with its cool green and white colour palette. Winemaker Lukas Van Loggerenberg is waiting at a table for me, with a perfectly chilled-looking bottle of the Kamaraderie Chenin Blanc 2018.
Lukas has that thing Stellenbosch has, a deeply ingrained respect and knowledge of tradition, juxtaposed with fresh thinking; and because of that, some of the freshest wines produced yet on the African continent.
Lukas opens the chenin with a satisfying pop and we get stuck into our respective glasses, and the subject matter, him. Lukas is quickly making a name for himself both locally and abroad as one of South Africa’s rising stars, he’s almost universally praised for making pure and precise wines that favour low alcohols. His wines are made ‘naturally’ in that spontaneous fermentation is employed and the wines mature in old oak, but they have none of the funk, the detractors of so-called ‘natural wines’ abhor. No, Lukas’s wines are fine and fresh, and clearly been made for enjoyment.
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