By South African Wines
Charles Back's Fairview has been shaking up South African wine for decades. Here is why this Paarl estate deserves a place on your table.
Drive through the gates of Fairview in Paarl and it is immediately clear this is not a conventional winery. Goats wander the grounds. A working cheese factory runs alongside the cellars. The whole place has an irreverence that comes directly from Charles Back.
Back took over the family farm in 1978 and built Fairview into one of the most recognisable names in South African wine, mostly by refusing to play safe. This is the estate that called a wine Goats Do Roam, which is a deliberate poke at Côtes du Rhône, and then made the joke stick by putting good wine in the bottle.
They help with brand recognition, obviously. But Back brought them in as a way of managing the vineyard understory, grazing between the vines instead of running machinery or spraying chemicals. A practical decision turned into the estate's identity.
Those same goats supply milk for the cheese operation, which has won plenty of awards in its own right. Nothing at Fairview sits in isolation. The cheese pairs with the wine, the goats tend the vines, and the farm works as one thing rather than several.
The same instinct runs through the winemaking. Rather than chasing fashion or copying European templates, the focus is on what Paarl's Mediterranean climate and granite soils actually do well.
Goats do Roam Red at £13.79 is still the calling card. It is a Rhone-style blend of Shiraz, Mourvedre, Grenache and Cinsault, and it delivers what you want from a weeknight red: juicy fruit, smooth tannins, and enough going on to hold your interest. Think of it as a Côtes du Rhône with more sun and a better sense of humour. Goats do Roam White at £13.99 does the same job in the other direction.
Fairview Paarl Pinotage at £18.99 is worth attention. Plenty of producers quietly walked away from Pinotage. Fairview did not, and this version keeps the dark fruit and the smokiness while holding the rustic edge in check. It is Pinotage for people who are fairly sure they do not like Pinotage.
Fairview Shiraz at £23 is the more serious red, and The Goatfather at £16.49 is the one with the best name and a blend to match.
On whites, Fairview Darling Sauvignon Blanc at £15.99 comes from cooler Darling fruit and has the citrus and herb lift you want as an aperitif or with a fish pie.
There is also Fairview Sweet Red at £24, which is an unusual thing to find and very good with strong cheese or a chocolate pudding.
What separates Fairview is a willingness to experiment alongside a refusal to let standards slip at the cheap end. The attention that goes into the £23 Shiraz goes into the £13.79 blend as well, which is not true everywhere.
Sustainability came early here too. Organic farming, renewable energy, and treating staff as partners rather than employees, all of it well before any of that became a marketing line.
These are not precious bottles. They are made for meals and company.
Goats do Roam Red takes anything off a grill: lamb chops, sausages, a decent burger. The whites handle fish and chips or a Thai takeaway without complaint. And if you can find Fairview cheese in a UK deli, which is increasingly possible, the pairing with their own wine is worth the effort of looking.
In a market full of mass-produced wine and marketing noise, Fairview is recognisably the work of people who enjoy what they do. The wines have personality, and they taste of a specific place: warm Paarl days, cool nights, granite underneath.
As a gift they carry a story, which helps. For your own shelf they offer consistency and character without a serious outlay. The full South African red wines range is worth browsing alongside them, and we deliver anywhere in the UK.
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