Spice Route Chakalaka
£26.00
£34.67 per litre · incl. 20% VAT
In Stock — 6 bottles available
Platter's Wine Guide 5-Star rating (multiple vintages)
Six grapes, one bold idea. Spice Route's flagship red blends Grenache, Carignan, Durif, Mourvèdre, Shiraz and Tannat from the sun-baked Swartland into something dense, spicy and unmistakably South African. Deep ruby in the glass, full-bodied on the palate, and named after the Zulu word for togetherness, fitting, because this is a wine made for sharing.
Not for sale to persons under 18. Adult signature required on delivery.
Our Verdict
We've tasted a lot of Swartland blends, and Chakalaka remains one of the wines we point newcomers toward when they ask what South African red actually tastes like. The six-grape blend gives it a complexity you rarely find at this price, there's the spice and structure of Shiraz and Tannat, the fragrance of Grenache, the muscle of Mourvèdre, and Spice Route have been refining the recipe since Charles Back planted the first vines in 1998. A customer favourite, and the bottle we reach for when we want to convert a sceptic. Decant it, share it, watch it disappear.
Tasting Notes
Deep ruby in the glass, with a nose that earns the name, black pepper and warm baking spice weaving through blackcurrant, dark cherry and ripe plum. The palate is full-bodied and broad-shouldered, fruit pushed forward by the warm Swartland sun but held in check by smooth, structured tannins. Seasoned oak sits in the background, adding savoury depth rather than vanilla sweetness, and the finish carries that signature spice note long after the glass is empty.
About This Wine
Some wines whisper. Chakalaka shouts, in the best possible way. Named after the fiery South African relish that brings a braai table to life, this is Spice Route's signature blend, and it lives up to the billing. Six grape varieties, Grenache, Carignan, Durif, Mourvèdre, Shiraz and Tannat, each chosen for how they cope with the Swartland's dry, dusty heat, then woven together into something far more interesting than the sum of its parts. Pour a glass and the Swartland tells its story straight away. Deep ruby colour, then a lifted nose of black pepper and warm baking spice, woven through ripe blackcurrant, dark cherry and plum. The palate is full-bodied and richly textured, with smooth structured tannins and seasoned French and American oak that supports rather than dominates. There's a savoury, almost meaty depth underneath the fruit, pure old-vine Swartland character, from bush vines rooted deep in iron-rich clay and decomposed granite. This wants food, and it wants generous food. A slow-cooked lamb shoulder, oxtail stew, charcoal-grilled ribeye, or a proper Sunday roast with all the trimmings. It'll also stand up beautifully to anything spiced, North African tagines, a rich curry, even a braai with a kick. Drinks brilliantly on release and rewards a decade in the cellar if you're patient. Delivered across the UK, and a thoughtful gift for any South African in your life who'd recognise that name on the label straight away.
Food Pairing
This is a wine built for slow-cooked, spice-led food. Think Sunday lamb shoulder roasted with rosemary and garlic, oxtail stew on a cold evening, or a proper braai with boerewors and lamb chops. The pepper and dark fruit also love the smoky char of barbecued ribs, while a mature Cheddar or aged Gouda makes a quietly brilliant finish.
- —Slow-roasted lamb shoulder with rosemary and garlic
- —Oxtail stew with red wine and root vegetables
- —Barbecued boerewors and lamb chops
- —Sticky pork ribs with smoked paprika rub
- —Mature Cheddar or aged Gouda with quince paste
How to Serve
Decanting
Give this an hour in a wide-bottomed decanter when young, the six-grape blend has plenty to say, and air helps the tannins relax and the spicy aromatics step forward properly.
Behind the Wine
Swartland reds are shaped by hot, dry summers tempered by cool Atlantic breezes sweeping in off the West Coast. Spice Route works almost entirely with dry-farmed bush vines, forcing roots deep into iron-rich clay and decomposed granite in search of moisture. The result is small, thick-skinned berries packed with concentrated flavour. Blending across six varieties also smooths out seasonal swings, so the wine arrives with the same generous, spice-laden character year after year.
Ageing Potential
Drinking beautifully on release, but this has the bones to reward another eight to twelve years in the cellar. With time, the bright fruit will settle into something more savoury, leather, dried herbs, tobacco, while those structured tannins soften into velvet.
The Land
The fruit comes from dry-farmed bush vines on Richter 99 rootstock, planted on Malmesbury shale with iron-rich red clay subsoils and pockets of decomposed granite. Those deep clays hold just enough moisture to carry the vines through summer, while the granite lends lift and freshness. It's a soil profile that delivers intensity without weight, the secret behind the wine's plush, spice-driven character.
The Winemaking
The grapes are hand-harvested, destemmed and lightly crushed before fermenting in open-top concrete kuipe, with manual punch-downs to coax out colour and gentle tannin. Each variety is racked into seasoned French and American oak for malolactic fermentation and ageing, kept separate so the blender can taste each component at its honest best. Once the final blend is dialled in, the wine returns to the same used barrels to knit together, oak as a frame, never a coat of paint.
The Swartland Region
Swartland, 'the black land' in Afrikaans, named for the renosterbos that darkens after rain, rolls out north of Cape Town across the hills around Malmesbury and Riebeek-Kasteel. It's hot, dry, and stubbornly characterful: a place of old bush vines, granite and koffieklip soils, and a community of growers who've made it the most quietly thrilling corner of South African wine. Concentration, freshness, and a wild streak you don't find elsewhere, that's Swartland in a glass.
About the Producer
Spice Route
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.