Spice Route

South Africa

Spice Route is one of the names that made the Swartland matter. Long before the region became shorthand for exciting South African wine, Charles Back, the man behind Fairview in Paarl, saw something in this hot, dry stretch of land near Malmesbury that others overlooked: old bushvines, low yields, and soil that seemed to concentrate flavour rather than dilute it. What draws us to Spice Route is that sense of conviction. This isn't a producer chasing trends. It's one that helped set them, proving the Swartland could produce structured, age-worthy reds rather than just bulk wine for blending. The name itself tells you what to expect: wines built on rich, ripe Swartland fruit, layered with careful oak handling, the way a good cook uses spice to lift a dish rather than mask it. The range leans into varieties that thrive in the heat. Pinotage gets a serious, savoury treatment here rather than the confected style some associate with the grape. Mourvèdre, still rare in South African vineyards, shows real class in Spice Route's hands, offering the kind of dried herb and dark fruit complexity you'd expect from an old vine planting. And Chakalaka, named after the spicy South African relish, is exactly what it promises: a warm, generous, food-friendly blend that captures the whole philosophy in one glass. We stock Spice Route because it represents Swartland wine at its most confident. It's not trying to be Stellenbosch, and it's not trying to be Bordeaux. It's proudly, distinctively itself, grown on a converted tobacco farm that turned out to be one of the best pieces of vineyard land in the country. Tim Atkin MW recognised as much, awarding the estate Cru Bourgeois status in his South Africa Classification, a nod to consistent quality rather than passing hype. For UK wine lovers who think they know what South African red wine tastes like, Spice Route is a useful correction. Delivered to your door, it's a chance to taste the Swartland at the source, from a producer that helped put the region on the map in the first place.

The Spice Route Story

Spice Route began in 1997, when Charles Back, already established at Fairview in Paarl, bought Klein Amoskuil, an old tobacco farm near Malmesbury in the Swartland. It was an unusual choice at the time. The Swartland was known for bulk wine and brandy grapes, not fine wine, and few producers were looking to it for serious reds.

The first harvest came through in 1998, processed in a cellar converted from the farm's original tobacco-drying shed. It was a practical solution rather than a grand statement, but it set the tone for a winery built on making the most of what the land already offered rather than imposing something artificial onto it.

That approach paid off in an unexpected way. Klein Amoskuil turned out to hold what is believed to be South Africa's oldest surviving Sauvignon Blanc vineyard, a discovery that underlined just how much history was sitting quietly in Swartland soil, waiting for someone to take it seriously.

Over the years that followed, Spice Route became one of the names credited with putting the Swartland on the fine wine map, alongside a handful of other producers willing to farm old vines for character rather than volume. The region's reputation for bold, complex reds owes something to the groundwork laid here in the late 1990s.

Recognition followed in time. In 2019, Tim Atkin MW's South Africa Classification awarded Spice Route Cru Bourgeois status, a mark of sustained quality across vintages rather than a single standout wine. It was confirmation of what the estate had been quietly proving for over two decades: that this warm, wild corner of the Cape could produce wines with real depth and staying power.

Winemaking Philosophy

The name says it all. Spice Route wines are built the way a good spice blend works: warmth, complexity and layers that reveal themselves slowly, never one dominant note drowning out the rest. Charles Back, already established at Fairview in Paarl, saw something in this old tobacco farm near Malmesbury that most people missed. The Swartland's low rainfall and searing summers force vines to work hard for every bunch of grapes, and that struggle concentrates flavour rather than diluting it.

Klein Amoskuil turned out to hold more history than anyone expected, including what's believed to be South Africa's oldest Sauvignon Blanc vineyard, a reminder that this apparently rough farmland has been quietly producing serious fruit for decades. The reds, Pinotage and Mourvèdre among them, lean into that ripeness rather than fighting it, with oak used as a seasoning rather than a mask. It lifts and rounds the fruit, in the same way a pinch of the right spice draws flavour out of a dish instead of covering it up.

This is Swartland winemaking with a clear point of view: generous, sun-drenched fruit given structure and lift through careful, restrained oak handling. It's an approach that helped put this once-overlooked region on the map, and it still shapes every bottle that leaves the old tobacco shed turned cellar.

Awards & Recognition

Recognition for Spice Route arrived in 2019, when Tim Atkin MW awarded the estate 'Cru Bourgeois' status in his influential South Africa Classification, an annual assessment modelled loosely on Bordeaux's own ranking system and closely watched across the Cape wine trade.

For a producer built on an old tobacco farm in what was once considered rough, unfashionable country, that inclusion carries real weight. It reflects the broader story of the Swartland's rise from overlooked backwater to one of South Africa's most talked-about fine wine regions, a shift Charles Back and Spice Route helped set in motion back in 1997. Being placed among the country's classified estates is a mark of consistency and quality recognised well beyond the farm gate, and a nod to the patient, low-yield, high-character winemaking that defines everything produced at Klein Amoskuil.