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Welcome to the Ex Animo Wine Co Podcast: a series of interviews and discussions with winemakers and great minds from the world of wine. In this episode, David Clarke chats with Winemag.co.za Editor and Wine Reviewer, Christian Eedes. This is the 4th annual Wine SONA (State of the Nation) discussion. In it, David poses questions to Christian about the state of SA wine in 2025, such as: - How do we get more South Africans to drink wine? - Why vineyards are decreasing - Foreign wines: why are they not necessarily better than South African wine? *A video version of this interview is available on YouTube*

Welcome to the Ex Animo Wine Co Podcast: a series of interviews and discussions with winemakers and great minds from the world of wine. In this episode, David Clarke talks with respected wine farmer, Johan Reyneke speaks about his approach to regenerative wine farming. Johan speaks about how biodynamic methods have helped to grow top quality grapes while also nurturing the land, animals and people at Reyneke. Johan explains “The Reyneke vineyards are herbicide, pesticide and fungicide free. Just like any organic vineyard should be. Instead of spraying weeds with poison, we carefully select and grow companion plants amongst our vines to outcompete the weeds. These companion plants have the ability to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere, help break up compacted soil or even harbour a beneficial insect or two.” *A video version of this interview is available on YouTube*

Welcome to the Ex Animo Wine Co Podcast: a series of interviews and discussions with winemakers and great minds from the world of wine. In this episode, David Clarke talks with ‘Poenie’ Lourens’ from Lourens Family Vineyards. Poenie grew up in Paarl, near Stellenbosch, but doesn’t come from a winemaking family. Poenie’s wines are catching some attention from the reviewers and it is clear that he is a winemaker with real natural talent. Watch the chat about his winemaking journey and the story behind the celebrated ‘Lindi Carien’ blended white wine. *A video version of this interview is available on YouTube*

Welcome to the Ex Animo Wine Co Podcast: a series of interviews and discussions with winemakers and great minds from the world of wine. In this episode, David Clarke talks with Chris Alheit about his multi-award-winning wines. Chris’ white wines, founded on an unmatched understanding of Chenin Blanc grapes. These wines are elegant, sophisticated and unsurprisingly - multi-award-winning. Chris tells us how he first started to appreciate wine as a young wine steward, and how that curiosity led him to study and master Chenin Blanc in the Western Cape. Wines such as Cartology and Magnetic North are served in the finest restaurants worldwide and critics agree - these wines are precise, focused, concentrated and “quite brilliant”. *A video version of this interview is available on YouTube*

Welcome to the Ex Animo Wine Co Podcast: a series of interviews and discussions with winemakers and great minds from the world of wine. In this episode, David Clarke chats with the powerhouse couple of South African Cap Classiques: Ann and Pieter Ferreira. The pair have been at the forefront of fine sparkling wine, and their knowledge and understanding of the style is unparalleled. *A video version of this interview is available on YouTube*

Welcome to the Ex Animo Wine Co Podcast: a series of interviews and discussions with winemakers and great minds from the world of wine. In this episode, David Clarke chats with Ex Animo producers across the Western Cape to check how their harvests are progressing. This podcast was recorded in February 2024.

Welcome to the Ex Animo Wine Co Podcast: a series of interviews and discussions with winemakers and great minds from the world of wine. In this episode, David Clarke chats with Winemag.co.za Editor and Wine Reviewer, Christian Eedes. This is the third annual Wine SONA (State of the Nation) discussion. In it, David poses questions to Christian about the state of SA wine in 2024, such as: What was the most surprising in the world of SA wine in 2023 What is Christian most looking forward to in 2024 What were Christian's 'finds' of 2023 What changed in 2023 Christian's current take on 2020, 2021 and 2022 vintages What varieties or regions had a good year in 2023 (and who didn't *A video version of this interview is available on YouTube*

*A video version of this interview is available on YouTube* Welcome to the Ex Animo Wine Co Podcast: a series of interviews and discussions with winemakers and great minds from the world of wine. In this episode, David Clarke brings together four winemakers from the Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley who specialise in Pinot Noir. The microclimate of the valley makes this one of the finest sites in South Africa to grow Pinot Noir - producing globally recognised wines of excellence. David and the Upper Hemel-en-Aarde crew chat about what makes the valley unique, why Pinot Noir does so well here and how the oceans and soils play such an important role. A fascinating deep-dive into Pinot Noir in a South African context, as told by the people who have worked these vines for decades. David speaks with: Craig Wessels of Restless River Johannes Storm of Storm Wines Nadia Newton Johnson of Hearth Wines Gordon Newton Johnson of Newton-Johnson Family Wines More information on the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley can be found at https://www.hemelenaardewines.com/

*A video version of this interview is available on YouTube* Welcome to the Ex Animo Wine Co Podcast: a series of interviews and discussions with winemakers and great minds from the world of wine. In this episode, David Clarke talks with Craig Hawkins of the groundbreaking natural wine label TESTALONGA. Loved for his relaxed approach to wine making, Craig is one of THE names in natural wine in South Africa, if not in the New World. Craig talks about his journey into winemaking, discovering natural wines for the first time, how he experimented with different methods and what he’s learnt along the way. Craig and David taste the full range of TESTALONGA wines (spoiler: it’s a lot!). This is a rare look at a hard-to-find collection of wines, tasted and described by the winemaker himself.

Tickets to Wine SONA 2023: https://www.exanimo.co.za/product/wine-sona-2023-with-christian-eedes-one-ticket/ Today on the podcast we have updates from the winemakers we work with about harvest 2023. Early signs look really great for '23 as a vintage. John Seccombe was clearly having a bad day - Was great to hear Koen in his element after all the drama he had late last year. Some Pinot Blanc being harvested for the first time is exciting for one of the producers. And some haven't even started yet! :) Cheers, David from Ex Animo.

Jocelyn presenting her Cabernet Franc and Divergent wines at a lunch in Banghoek Valley, Stellenbosch in January 2023. Vintage 2021s available soon at exanimo.co.za

A quick update on the 2022 harvest in South Africa from 11 winemakers. John Seccombe, Thorne & Daughters Mick Craven, Craven Jocelyn Wilson, Hogan Niels Verburg, Luddite Koen Roose, Spioenkop Tyrrel Myburgh, Joostenberg Ann Ferreira, Pieter Ferreira Bernhard Bredell, Scions of Sinai Craig Hawkins, TESTALONGA Jessica Saurwein, Saurwein Craig Wessels, Restless River

Today on the podcast we have Christian Eedes of winemag.co.za – a wine website that was born out of a magazine published in South Africa from 1993 to 2011. Their tagline is “Everything to do with South African Fine Wine”. He is, to my mind, one of the most important voices in South African wine criticism. This week saw the annual State of the Nation Address (or SONA for short) by President Ramaphosa, and I wanted to get Christian’s opinions of the state of South African fine wine. Christian is certainly one of the most knowledgeable and widely-tasted people in South African wine over the last 3 decades. He brings a context and a perspective that can only be gained over many years of submersion in an industry. We last did one of these chats in February 2020 – just as the COVID pandemic was starting to develop – Link: https://www.exanimo.co.za/podcast/#1599999555612-1917a56b-e69c Thank you for listening. If you want to follow Christian – his website is winemag.co.za and he tweets at @ChristianEedes.

Today on the podcast we have Jocelyn Wilson winemaker and owner of Hogan Wines, based in the Banhoek area of Stellenbosch. I chatted to Jos a couple of months ago, ahead of the release of her new vintages later this month. But the conversation – and it really is a conversation rather than an interview – isn’t really about the new wines. I really wanted to get Jossie’s story on record – she is one of the producers in South Africa that has been termed “The New Wave”. Her journey to this point is an interesting story and I wanted to explore that with her in a long format conversation. If you are interested to dive deeper into the Hogan Wines do not despair, we spend the second half of the podcast chatting fairly comprehensively about the wines she produces. We also touch on a range of other topics as we went through. Little caveat here – we distribute Hogan Wines in South Africa – but this just means that we love Jos, and all that she does! Proper legend she is. Thank you for listening – and I give you Jocelyn Wilson…

Today on the podcast we have James Downes, farmer, viticulturist and part owner with his brother Stuart, of Dunman Way Farm, home of Shannon Vineyards in Elgin. In short, James is a total weapon. His knowledge of the terroir of his farm, and of Elgin in general is extremely engaging and informative. Combine this with an inquisitive mind, a sharp intellect, a thirst for learning and desire to be better at what he does tomorrow than he is today, and the result is one of the most formidable people in the wine industry in South Africa. As you will hear, James’ natural conversational style tends to focus on ideas and questioning – this resulted in the chat touching on a wide range of subjects. You can’t help but be taken along with his enthusiasm and expertise. Please enjoy my conversation with the informative, engaging and humble, James Downes….