Why it matters
The producer
Savage Wines is Duncan Savage’s name-led Cape Town project, begun as a side venture with the 2011 vintage. Its cellar is at 6 Spencer Road in Salt River, but the grapes do not come from a single estate surrounding the building. Savage works across separate Western Cape parcels, buying fruit and leasing vineyards, so each bottle begins with a particular block rather than an estate-wide blend.
That structure matters most in wines such as Follow The Line 2024. Its Cinsault-led fruit comes from old, dry-farmed vines on decomposed granite, while Syrah is co-fermented into the wine. The result is a red shaped less by cellar address than by the combination of grape, vine age and ground.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Salt River is the working base; the Western Cape is the vineyard field. This separation allows Savage Wines to draw on sites suited to different grapes, but it also means the label changes with access to individual parcels. Follow The Line depends on one established Cinsault source, while Savage White is assembled as a white blend from selected Western Cape fruit.
The label therefore reads most clearly bottle by bottle. The grape tells part of the story, the parcel supplies the physical conditions, and the cellar turns that material into a finished wine with its own weight, acidity and finish.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Savage Wines does not own vineyards. Its farming relationship is therefore built through separate growers, leased land and careful selection of parcels, including blocks held on 25-year leases. This gives the cellar different raw materials to work with, from dry-farmed Cinsault to the components of Savage White.
The documented cellar approach includes whole-cluster use, oak, filtration and malolactic fermentation, applied where the wine calls for it rather than as a single recipe. For Follow The Line, co-fermenting Cinsault with Syrah brings red-fruit perfume and spice into the same ferment; its fine tannin and dry close keep the palate light on its feet.
Wines to know
The range in view
The supported range has two useful poles. Follow The Line 2024 is a Cinsault-led red, with a small proportion of Syrah co-fermented into it. The old dry-farmed vines and granite source feed a wine of red fruit, savoury spice, bright acidity, fine tannin and a long dry finish.
Savage White 2024 provides the white-blend side of the range. Its documented composition, vinification and élevage make it a separate expression of Savage’s parcel sourcing: a wine built from chosen white-grape components rather than a white version of Follow The Line. Together, the bottles show a producer working through grape and site rather than a fixed estate hierarchy.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Choose Follow The Line 2024. It is a Cinsault-led red with Syrah co-fermented into the wine, sourced from 43-year-old dry-farmed vines on decomposed granite. Its bright acidity, red fruit, savoury spice and fine tannin make the parcel model tangible: old vines and dry farming supply the fruit, granite supplies the site context, and co-fermentation brings another shade of spice without turning the wine broad or heavy. Drink it for its dry, lingering finish and moderate body.