The South African surfer-turned-winemaker Duncan Savage has made a career out of finding great vineyards that have been neglected or overlooked. One day, though, on a recce to Cinsault vineyard on a sheep farm in Darling in the Western Cape, he realised he was completely lost. When he called the farmer, for the third time, asking for directions, the owner blew his top: “He said, ‘Volg die fokken telefoon lyn’ [follow the fucking telephone line],” recalls Savage. “Our first meeting was rather brief, but over time we became the best of friends.”
The wine that resulted, Follow the Line, has since become a totem for the South African new wave — a movement that’s been venturing off the beaten track in search of old vines that were previously just blended away in mass-produced bulk wines, but which are now being reappraised.
Duncan Savage among the barrels of his Follow the Line Cinsault at Savage Wines
Savage Follow the Line 2023, £39, swig.co.uk
Few of these vineyards are pretty – they’re diamonds in the rough
