Sam pushes open the cellar door, the scent of oak and grape must pulling us into the cool interior, out of the Stellenbosch sun. “Here’s my little corner,” he says waving over at some barrels with a smile. All the winemakers have the same ethos, incorporating minimal intervention for site-expressive wines. The various sleeping barrels piled up throughout the space also belong to Solitary, which is the label of the farm’s owner, Jozua Joubert as well as Lysa Wines, Naude Wines, Illmis Wines, B Vintners and Angus Paul. An impressive set of producers, all fermenting under one roof.
The Karibib Farm in all of its glory!
You can taste their wines at the tasting room and bistro run by Somm & Co. It’s an eclectic, dynamic space with a regularly changing menu and wines by the glass of the aforementioned superstars. The compound is set high up on a slope with views of fat summer vineyards and distant rolling mountains, it’s the kind of place to settle in and stay awhile. There are live music events too.
Born and raised on Karibib, Jozua Joubert inherited the 55-hectare farm from his father in 2010. Then he was making wine at Warwick, but gave that up to manage the granite-rich slopes of his legacy, a treasure trove of quality fruit for some of South Africa’s top winemakers who also source from here. Among them Jean Smit, the Cravens, Lukas van Loggerenberg, Sons of Sugarland and more.
For Jozua’s own label his aim is to ‘minimalise additives, maximise effort in the vineyard and to have a sense of place in a bottle.’ For him, this means focusing on single-vineyard wines.
Stars in the Dark
We pull up chairs on the stoep, the lush panorama spread out before us.
At just 24-years-old, Sam’s wines are already garnering critical acclaim. His maiden release Stars in the Dark 2018, an Elim syrah was deemed the unofficial wine of the show at the now-famous New Wave Tasting 2019 in London, with the likes of Jancis Robinson and Steven Spurrier singing its praises.
“I’ve always had an entrepreneurial streak,” he says. “From DJing at kids’ parties to selling bikes and hoverboards.” Growing up in Johannesburg wine wasn’t really a part of his family’s culture. Though he says he and his grandpa like to get stuck in on some fine wine. ‘I know to bring the Panados when visiting him,” he quips.
“I’ve always been flavour obsessed though – and when I found out you could actually do winemaking as a job, I thought wow that’s cool.”
And so down to the Cape he came, pursuing a degree in Oenology at Stellenbosch University. In between classes he worked at a local wine shop with fellow wine-lover Chris Groenewald. “The shop was very quiet,” he laughs. So the pair spent their time challenging each other with blind tastings and digging ever-deeper in the lore of the vine. For Sam, it was the syrahs of the Northern Rhone that sunk their hooks in. He decided then and there he was going to take the cue from the Old World and focus on one variety, and do it really well. “Respectfully, gently.”
Luck has shined on this rising star from the get-go. He followed his studies by doing harvests with three of South Africa’s most celebrated winemakers, Lukas Van Loggerenberg, Chris Alheit and Carl van der Merwe. “Everyone has been so generous with their time.
“I had a lightbulb moment while interning with Lukas; I saw how he made his legendary wines from a simple shed in the Devon Valley. It showed me that making really good wine is mostly about working with good grapes, and good people.”
Wanting to make his own wine, he says he spent every cent he had on the best fruit he could afford and rented a cellar space at Stellenbosch University’s historic Welgevallen Cellar. “I’d just come out of a long episode of depression and even when I felt totally numbed out and nothing else made sense, great wines could still give me joy, specifically those made with whole-bunch.
“Some of the best things in life emerge from tough times and dark places,” he shares. “So I called my inaugural wine Stars in the Dark in honour of that – and I bottled it with my family on my 21st birthday.”
Since then, he hasn’t looked back. The 2019 vintage was one of only two South African wines to be selected as a Vinous Wine of the Week, scoring an impressive 97-points, among other accolades.
Sam has now just released Stars in the Dark 2020. Opening the bottle, there’s a little rocket printed on the cork. “It’s on every Minimalist Wines’ cork,” explains Sam. “Once it’s popped, the journey to the vineyard begins!”
The wine does just that and takes me straight to weather-ravaged Elim. At the southernmost tip of Africa, it is undoubtedly one of the most difficult regions to grow grapes with its relentless sea-born gales, very little rain and marginal climate, all making for quite extreme viticulture. The grapes that do make it however offer an intensity of fruit from small-berried, low-yielding crops with bright acids and a distinct saline character. The syrahs in particular presenting peppery and fine.
“I call them salt-and-pepper wines,” says Sam.
Out of the glass comes lifted aromatics of red hibiscus, violets then cool white pepper. The palate is fresh and focused with zippy red currant verve and a dark plum undercurrent. The purity of fruit is underscored by chalky tannins, a texture like raw silk, and a saline, savoury acid pitching right through.
Connect the Dots Blended Syrah Maiden Vintage
A champion of cool Cape sites he shows me another wine, the maiden release of Connect The Dots (2020). So named as it is a blend of different syrah pockets, two vineyards in Elgin and one on Stellenbosch’s Helderberg. It’s a touch plusher and juicier than his flagship, but still with that incredible texture and tight acid.
Musing on the inspiration behind the wine he says: “Life is an expedition and though the route’s often unclear, the fun lies in joining the dots between the people, places, ideas and experiences we encounter along the way. As in the vines, sometimes they connect, sometimes they don’t but, when the dots do connect, the results can be breathtaking.”
His wines have certainly lit my imagination. And the thing is, he’s only getting started.