From Kansas City, Missouri, and from close Roanoke, Virginia in the U.S., two Americans in their twenties met in Cape Town while investigating South Africa. They went through very nearly seven days climbing 100 miles over the ‘wild coast’ of the nation, starting at Bulungula hold up west of Folokwe and traveling upper east through Hole in The Wall, Coffee Bay, Mdumbi and Hiluleka. When they started their trek a pooch named ‘Lubanzi’ by local people chose to pursue and remained as their partner until they rested their last night. The puppy at that point evaporated as strangely as it initially showed up.
Yet Lubanzi, friend and fellow explorer, was not forgotten.
The pair, Charles Brain and Walker Brown, at that point, shaped Cape Venture Wine Company in 2016 in a joint effort with autonomous South African winemakers Trizanne Barnard and Bruce Jack. Their Lubanzi wines (‘From where the mountain meets the sea… ‘) incorporate two new canned wines—one a Chenin Blanc and the other a red mix (Syrah/Shiraz prevailing, with Cinsault, Mourvedre and Grenache), just as packaged wines. They currently sell in 26 U.S. states and Canada, and will before long start selling in South Africa. They are situated in Washington DC, and the encompassing area—including Virginia and Maryland—is likewise an essential market.
Brain recently told about their venture.
We began close by two free winemakers who live in Cape Town. We’re sourcing all grapes from one gathering and utilizing their offices to create the wine. Both of us didn’t actually have the money to manufacture our own winery when we made Lubanzi, yet needed to make sure the wines were reliable, managed by experienced winemakers and sourced from their equivalent vineyards to guarantee coherence in style and quality. We made Lubanzi on the whole since we cherish South Africa, were ravenous for experience and thought South African wine merited a superior seat at the table than it was getting. Individuals associated with the story and value the thought was done out of close to home enthusiasm.
The blending and bottling take place at Swartland Cellar, located outside Malmesbury in South Africa. The canning, due to the need for specialized cans and industrial equipment, is done in the U.S.
Brain talked of the challenges.
We work both as a virtual South African winery and as a U.S. merchant. It’s a fascinating model. We do have a direct to shopper channel and have all the authorizing, yet that is a little piece of the business. We created two assortments at about $17 a container and realized early that direct to customer works best when you’re ready to offer genuine assortment reliably. For us, the fundamental center is with our merchants.
