The why, the what and the how of...
David & Nadia
David & Nadia is a family-owned project that focusses on producing wines from a spectrum of organically farmed, old and dry land bush vine vineyards from different areas with different soil types, and exclusively from the Swartland.
David and Nadia are members of the Swartland Independent Producers with a natural and minimalistic approach in mind. In the cellar they work as naturally as possible and only add sulphur to their wines. It is all about the soil and vineyards after all. They believe in a pure, fresh and natural style where site and soil are at work with a minimal influence from a winemaking point of view.
The flagship range, David & Nadia, consists of two white and two red wines. The Chenin Blanc is produced from seven vineyards which were planted between 1962 and 1982. “Aristargos” is a white blend, based on Chenin Blanc and blended with Clairette, Sémillon, Roussanne, Marsanne and Viognier. Young and old vine fruit is used for this wine and from across 14 vineyards. David and Nadia have a huge passion for Grenache Noir and there is a red dedicated entirely to this varietal, produced from two sites – on iron and granite rich soils. Their red blend, “Elpidios”, is gradually incorporating more Grenache with each vintage. This wine spends an extra year in bottle compared to other three in the range. Grenache and Syrah dominate the blend and includes Carignan, Cinsault and Pinotage. David does a fair portion of whole bunch fermentation and the wine is matured in 500-liter barrels and foudres.
Their other range is called “Topography” and has seen the restoration of a 220-year-old cellar on the Paardebosch farm based in the Siebritskloof Valley, Paardeberg. The project focuses on one specific farm with various old vineyards and currently produces two wines: a straight Pinotage which is matured in large foudres with a small portion of whole bunch. This fresh take on Pinotage is medium-bodied with ripe blackberry and raspberry notes. The Sémillon, which sees a bit of skin contact, is fragrant and a more chiselled example of this varietal.
David and Nadia also have a special single vineyard range which began with two wines and to date is comprised of three benchmark South African Chenin Blancs. Skaliekop is produced from vines planted in 1985, in shale soils in the Paarderberg. Hoë-Steen comes from vines planted in 1968 more toward Darling on deep iron-clay soils. The last wine to join this range was the Plat’bos (2018 was the maiden vintage) and is produced from a vineyard adjacent to the Skaliekop on pure granite soils.