The chapter index appears here the moment the episode is published.

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A wine named after people who broke machines, bottled under a crown cap, with every single bottle hand-numbered by Penny Verburg. That is not a contradiction. That is the joke landing.

The Luddites were Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire textile workers who smashed stocking frames between 1811 and 1816, taking their orders from General Ludd — a leader who almost certainly never existed, and who signed his threatening letters from Sherwood Forest. Machine-breaking became a capital offence in 1812, and Byron’s maiden speech in the House of Lords was made in the frame-breakers’ defence. A poet standing up for the machine-wreckers is a very good beat.

Niels and Penny Verburg founded Luddite in Bot River in 1999. Saboteur is not an entry-level range, and Niels will tell you so — it is a different style, not a lesser tier. The 2024 is Chenin-led with Blanc Fume, Viognier and, for the first time, a splash of Semillon, drawn from six bought-in sites across Bot River, Stanford and Elgin.

And in 2026, when the word Luddite has been reclaimed by everyone squaring up to AI, a twenty-seven-year-old Bot River wine brand is suddenly the most on-trend name in the Cape. Which is very funny, and entirely accidental.

But of course, if you have yet to sign up for your Monthly HanDrinksSolo Wine Subscription then you’ll have to hunt this wine down in your own time. But until then, here are my tasting notes and some technical specs:

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My tasting notes go up with the video — I do not publish notes on a wine I have not sat down and recorded properly. The numbers below are the producer’s own.

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73% Chenin Blanc, 15% Blanc Fume, 10% Viognier and 2% Semillon, the first vintage to include Semillon. WO Cape South Coast, from six bought-in sites across Bot River, Stanford and Elgin, harvested 26 January to 27 February 2024. Chenin and Viognier spent ten days on skins with punch-downs morning and evening; a portion of Chenin fermented in tank without skins and was blended back for fruit lift; the Blanc Fume went whole-bunch pressed straight to barrel with no settling. Eleven months in seasoned French oak with lees stirring. 19,400 bottles, each numbered by hand.
Alc. 12.68% (the label states 12.5%) | Sugar 1.7 g/L | Acid 6.2 g/L | pH 3.32 | Sulfur (total) not published.