Stuart Botha, winemaker at Tokara, with the estate's owners, GT and Anne-Marie Ferreira.
The recognition highlights Botha’s vineyard-first approach at Tokara since 2017, where a calm, hands-on style has helped draw out the distinctive character of the estate’s sites and shaped a period of thoughtful creativity and exploration.
“At Tokara, traditional methods converge with leading-edge technology to produce wines that are precise, expressive and unmistakably from their place,” says Karl Lambour, general manager at Tokara. “With Stuart as our winemaker, our legacy feels grounded and future-focused.”
“Owners, GT and Anne-Marie Ferreira, have entrusted me with an extraordinary opportunity, and that trust guides every decision,” says Botha. “Grapes grown on the slopes of the Simonsberg and farmed with care set the direction. We translate that origin into bottle. The aim is to let the site speak with clarity.”
The accolade aligns with the central theme of Atkin’s report. This includes a rising emphasis on terroir, careful farming, and wines that express place and season. It also reflects Tokara’s philosophy that excellence is built in the vineyard and refined in the cellar, with meticulous attention to detail at every step.
Guided by a belief that terroir should take centre stage, Botha oversees a disciplined, detail-oriented process from vineyard to bottle. Each wine is approached as a singular expression of site, season and style; an ethos consistent with his view that “a bottle of wine encapsulates the vision, reality and circumstance of a particular place and time.”