Escape Wines

Escape Wines -- or ESC, as the label reads -- began not with a winemaker's dream but with an engineer's impulse. Tian Claassens and CJ Venter, both wine enthusiasts and engineers from Pretoria, had spent years discussing the idea of owning a wine farm. In September 2017, they found their land: a property on the Afdaks River in the Bot River ward, fifteen kilometres from Hermanus, with steep southern slopes looking directly out over the Bot River Lagoon and Walker Bay beyond.

The pair planted their first hectares of vineyard in 2018 under the guidance of consultant viticulturist Johan Viljoen. Friend and fellow wine lover Dawid Upton joined as a shareholder, followed shortly by Corne Richards. But the decisive addition came in 2021, when the team was introduced to David Nieuwoudt of Cederberg Wines -- one of South Africa's most celebrated winemakers, known for producing award-winning wines from the highest-altitude vineyards in the Western Cape. Nieuwoudt became the fifth shareholder and now makes all ESC wines at his cellar in the Cederberg.

The terroir is distinctive. Most of the vineyards are planted on southern and south-western slopes with a direct view of Walker Bay. The cool sea breeze sweeping onto the vines creates a strongly maritime influence, and the clay-rich soils on the steep slopes produce wines of pronounced character and complexity. It is a cool-climate site that favours aromatic whites and structured reds.

The wine range is focused and tight: a Sauvignon Blanc, a Shiraz, and a low-alcohol Rose. The results have been immediate and impressive -- both Sauvignon Blancs earned gold medals, and the Shiraz won a double gold, at the Gilbert and Gaillard International Challenge. For a vineyard that is barely half a decade old, the recognition speaks to both the quality of the site and the skill Nieuwoudt brings to the cellar.

The tasting room, called Die Afdak, opened in December 2023 and operates Wednesday to Saturday from 10:00 to 16:00. On Saturdays, the experience becomes social: hosts prepare traditional braaibroodjies and boerewors around a fire, pairing local food traditions with cool-climate wines. The farm also operates as a protea farm, and the combination of indigenous fynbos, vineyard views stretching to the lagoon, and the informality of the tasting experience makes ESC a distinctive stop on the Bot River wine route.

ESC Wines is the product of five friends who traded their day jobs for a second career in wine. The name says it all -- an escape from the ordinary, grounded in one of the most beautiful and underexplored terroirs in the Western Cape.