Luddite Wines

Niels Verburg and his wife Penny are unabashed luddites who apply a technology-resistant philosophy to their methods, ‘farming conscientiously with minimum mechanization’ and aiming to make a wine that’s ‘as natural as possible, with little or no intervention’. ‘It’s about knowing that when you buy a bottle of Luddite, what’s inside is genuine and made with integrity,’ says Niels.

Niels met Penny at Elsenburg, the Cape Institute f...

Niels began his South African career as winemaker at Beaumont Wines in 1995, and in 1996 was the first to plant Shiraz vines in the Bot River valley. He recalls the rainy Sunday, during his tenure at Beaumont, when he took a bottle of wine up to a rocky outcrop and looking at where his farm is now asked the question, ‘if we can grow grapes on Beaumont, why not grow grapes here?’

Penny remembers planting the first vines in 2001 without ...

Some people describe Luddite Shiraz as Niels Verburg contained in a glass; Niels is six foot four and when he smiles appears to be beaming an embrace in your direction. As a young winemaker traveling the world Niels confirmed his love for Shiraz when working a harvest in Australia but it was a winery in Chile that inspired his wine-making method, ‘It was as if I’d gone back 20 years, it was ramshackle, chaotic but they had great fruit and pass...