Testalonga
Baby Bandito Stay Brave - 2021
7.50 / 10

Type
White Still, Dry
Producer
Testalonga
Vintage
2021
Location
South Africa, WO Swartland
Grapes
Chenin Blanc
Alcohol
12
Sugar
NA
Price
640 UAH
Cellar
N/A

Producer

Craig & Carla Hawkins, without any doubt, are revolutionizing the South African wine industry. After long years of traveling around the world and making wines in known and established wineries (like Matassa and Niepoort Vinhos S.A.), they decided to settle down in Swartland and start their own winery. The year was 2008, and they produced 2 barrels of macerated Chenin Blanc. It is considered the first macerated wine in the whole of South Africa. They had to fight for the right to export their wines as regulators were against letting these wines out to the market. All those sediments and other traces of low intervention winemaking were quite suspicious back then. But there is nothing to spoil, as Craig and Carla are famous in the wine world.

In the 2015 they bough Bandits Kloof farm in the northern mountains of Swartland. Climate is similar to Sicilian, so they planted Frappato, Macabeo, Carignan, Mataro, Grenache and Garnacha Blanca.

As they say, ‘made from grapes’. And nothing more (except for a tiny bit of sulphites).

Ratings

2022-07-22 - 7.50

Entry-level skin contact wine. In what sense? It is calm and doesn’t bite. You can even pet it. Dried apricot, ice tea, and yellow apple with some honey on top. Easy going, tannin is subtle (hey, short maceration). Soft nutty aftertaste, some salinity. Delicate and tasty.