When the plumb lines come out and the hands get rough from stacking barrels, we know another season is finished.
The final 2026 wines are moving today to rest in oak for the winter.
2026 was a particularly challenging vintage and a particularly special one.
Let’s focus on the special…
Quickly approaching 10 years, LOST BOY Wines started out as just 5 barrels.
That’s it.
Look at this little corner now 🙏
I know it still ain’t much, but man… I’m proud of it.
Thank you for the support and opportunity to put everything I’ve got into these wines.
I’m forever grateful to each and every one of you 🥂
My mom told me last night my 5 year old nephew back home did his ‘Show and Tell’ project at school about me.
I don’t get to see my family that side too much these days so it doesn’t take a lot to feel a bit emotional with news like this.
I’ll be honest, it got to me. I was honoured.
I’m quite fortunate to have had this young lad come out and visit me a few times. He’s an amazing little dude.
In his presentation though, he told everyone that I’ve got zebras in my backyard.
Unfortunately this isn’t completely true. Honesty and transparency are things I value a lot in my wines and so we must keep it this way with the stories as well.
He is so young and very adorable though so we mustn’t get hung up on the little details here I think.
So before the ‘fake news’ police come after us…
I think what he was trying to say is South Africa is a very cool place and where his Oom makes wine is especially awesome.
I’d like to quickly set the record straight:
The zeb’s are in my FRONT yard 😂🥂
I was given a lesson many years ago by a gentleman that is quite famous in the world of wine.
A winemaker that many producers would pay a lot of money for a lesson or small bit of advice from.
2026 was his 40th vintage making wine in South Africa.
And when I first met him, he didn’t tell me this, rather, he showed it to me. He showed it to me over the course of a few years.
Despite being the epitome of success in this industry, having accomplished everything a winemaker can achieve… he doesn’t sit in an air-conditioned office and send off some emails each morning on what must get done.
He is the first on the farm in the morning and the last to leave the winery in the evening.
And he made it very clear to me, no matter where the business or brand goes, the focus must always remain 100% on the grapes and the wine.
The winemaker must never lose sight of this.
And so as I dig out my last fermenter for 2026, I’m not necessarily looking forward to the day where I no longer have to do this.
Rather, I’m looking forward the day where I do exactly this with grapes/wine with even more years of experience behind them and that I am even more excited about pressing.
Cheers to 2026 and many more 🥂
Life has a funny way of bringing you to exactly where you need to be.
Tell me 10 years ago, winemaking in Cape Agulhas was my future and I’d quickly ask 1) where is that? and 2) how many glasses of wine have you had today?
Today, I look around at this coastline, the wines that we produce, my incredible friends/community, the backlog of bike races in this country on my to-do list still, and I wonder how it took me so long to wander here.
Professionally, there’s no where else in the world I’d rather be making wine.
Deep down, I truly believe these cool-climate wines along this untouched coast have the potential to yield the best, dry, proper rosés the world has ever seen.
Elegant, vibrant, aromatic and fruit forward while still maintaining complexity… It is a difficult style to replicate elsewhere. Our wines have a true sense of place and they are my exact favourite style for proper Rosé.
I’m not sure if I’m off a bit on this optimism.
But let’s see 🥂 I’m quite hopeful 🙏
The final barrels of 2026 Rosé are just a few days away from being dry 🥂
This has been a season of ups, downs, challenges, and plenty of opportunities to make beautiful wines.
Let’s see how we did 🙏
In a few more weeks the final barrels selections will be made and both LOST BOY Rosé and my Reserve Rosé will be put together in stainless steel tanks where they will rest on the lees for another year before they make it to bottle.
Still a long road ahead, but I’m very pleased with where things are at today.
We are now on the downhill side of the 2026 harvest and coasting to the finish line. Just a few more red grapes to sort out and then we celebrate 🍾
Cheers to a great vintage 🥂
I didn’t think I’d share these photos, but I actually feel like I must - they mean too much.
About my favourite person and such a special country. But these were taken just for us.
About 7 weeks ago my wife, jokingly, told me she wanted to do the Cape Town Cycle Tour when I told her I wanted to get rid of my last old training bike. And so I called her out on her joke, and told her I’d keep it if she’s serious.
She was. And 7 training rides later, she lined up for her very first tour (110km).
My love for her, cycling, and this incredible country all came together on Sunday as she smashed her first ever Cape Town Cycle Tour.
But what I loved so much is what I’ve loved about this place from day 1, almost a decade ago.
Nowhere else in the world will an entire major city shut down everything for a bunch of cyclists to enjoy the most lekker routes it has to offer. On top of that, you have the rest of the country that isn’t riding, lining the roads with a braai and music and so much positivity.
110km of braai’s and music 😂
It is something I really wish the whole world could feel, especially these days with the current news.
Anyways, Mo has some sore hamstrings but a lekker finishers medal and we both left with a renewed love for this beautiful country.
Idk man, life isn’t so bad with a bicycle and some nice wine 🙏
#Wines4TheWild
Just some low-res photos of all my unexpected colleagues over the last week. What a place to make wine 🥂
It has been a challenging but brilliant harvest so far. We are probably 60% finished with the 2026 vintage. Gotta soak it in and enjoy it before another one is finished 🙏
#Wines4TheWild
When you look from afar at the tens of thousands of hectares that have burned over the last 3 months, it looks quite bleak. Black, barren, moonscape.
But the magic of fynbos isn’t meant for those who look from afar.
After just a couple of rains, things are starting to change quickly.
There are plenty of worthwhile metaphors to take from this floral kingdom. But I’ll let my cellphone photos from a 3 minute walk today through a properly scorched mountainside above the Sauvignon Blanc vineyards do the talking about those.
Life goes on 🍷 #Wines4TheWild
If I am anything, it is lucky.
Lucky to have my wife, our little home, and a full tank of diesel in my bakkie.
But also, lucky to have something that has me this thrilled to get out of bed and into the fields before the sun is up each day.
These new vineyards aren’t much now, but I reckon my best wines will hang here in just a few years.
For now, I’m enjoying the slow process of getting them ready to hold a crop.
Great things are ahead 🥂 #Wines4TheWild
I wanted to keep my Blanc de Blanc project secret… but the way this 18-month endeavour came to the brink of failure before being saved at the last minute, is worth sharing.
There were many things that made me decide to call SA home, but the wine community is at the top of that list.
I’ve developed a massive passion for Cap Classique over the last 9 years. My Brut Rosé MCC has also quickly become my most popular wine.
So I’ve had this idea of doing a proper Blanc de Blanc for a while - but I don’t have any Chardonnay.
I’ve visited every Chardonnay vineyard along our coast over the last 2 years in hopes of buying; but to no success.
While venting about this failure to a friend in the winery 2 weeks ago, the winemaker/owner of Ataraxia walks in. A gent I’ve looked up to for many years and is one of the best winemakers I’ve ever met…
He asks “what’s your schedule tomorrow?”
I list a whole lot of things.
He tells me to be at his farm first thing in the morning.
Anyone who knows SA wine will tell you, if the winemaker of Ataraxia tells you to meet him at his farm, you cancel your plans and go.
The next day I arrive, and he writes off his entire day to drive me through every vineyard of Chardonnay on his farm. We tasted the grapes from each block together. We discussed the soils, slopes, clones, etc etc.
And at the end of it, he asked if I’d like to make my first Blanc de Blanc from anything he showed me that day.
This gnarly-sloped, quartz-filled vineyard was what immediately stood out.
And so I am so excited to share that my first ever Blanc de Blanc is now in the winery from a beautiful block I was privileged enough to hand-select with a legend of SA wine from one of the most special and beautiful sites in the country.
This is why I call SA home and I’m so grateful everyday to be here 🙏
Cheers to 2026 🥂
This one just hits a bit different 🙏
Believe me, the insignificance of fermented grape juice isn’t lost on me.
But at the same time, it’s my entire world. It’s all I think about. It’s an art I am 1,000% committed to.
And for the last 3 months we’ve been on the verge of losing an entire year’s worth of work in these fields. Of losing everything, really, for a small producer like me.
But here we are 🥂
The first juice of 2026 is in tank and busy fermenting. And ironically the same warm, dry variables that have led to these tough conditions have also helped our fruit that usually faces wildly cold and wet conditions, achieve a level of flavour and ripeness I’ve never seen before.
The 2026 vintage is positioned right now to be a very special one.
Let’s see 🙏
#Wines4TheWild
