Little William growing up - the 2025 vintage and developing a vineyard
Little William is growing up. With the addition of a new vineyard called “Ankerblok”, the trajectory of the wine is changing slightly. Today we are releasing the 2025 vintage - The future for Little William.
This wine now combines fruit from the original Shiraz vineyard, “Rivierblok”, with fruit from the newly established “Ankerblok” (read the story below). And because of that, you can expect a shift. More feminine, more defined and more spicy. A shift in exactly the direction we hoped for.
And when you combine a remarkable vintage with an epic site, something special happens.
The story behind the name Little William is fascinating, another case of truth being stranger than fiction. And as you do - I made a film, where I show you the original site and tell you the story in detail. To view it, click below.
Establishing “Ankerblok" - THE STORY (please note, I am name dropping here but it's super important to give thanks to all the role players - it takes a village!)
During COVID, Francois Hanekom, Jaco Engelbrecht and myself embarked on one of the most exciting projects of my career: designing a vineyard from the ground (roots) up.
I don't own land, which means I may never have the opportunity to develop and plant a vineyard on soil that is my own. So when Marguerite Macdonald gave me the go-ahead to expand Little William on her husband Dugald’s family farm in the Koue Bokkeveld, Ceres, I knew this was the opportunity of a lifetime.
During those COVID years, Francois, the late Oom Dawid Saayman and I spent hours submerged in holes, assessing soil profiles while the snow-topped mountains surrounded us. Like Oom Dawid said in his own words after his first visit: “hier slaap ‘n haas wat ek nie ken nie” (There's more to this than meets the eye). Oom Dawid, after all, literally wrote the book on South African soils. Marguerite dubbed the vineyard as “Ankerblok”, referring to an old stone fence anchor in the vineyard.
In equal measure, Jaco, Francois and I spent days upon days analysing radiation levels, elevation, exposure, proximity to the ocean, and every other factor that could influence style. Our goal was simple: getting to know every piece of the land - what to plant where?
By 2021, we presented the final vineyard plan to Marguerite's team, and the baton was handed over. The agreement was simple. We provided the software; they provided the hardware being the vines, poles, irrigation, labour and everything required to turn a vision into reality.
Petrus Nel, Roy Jeffery, Dirkie and 30 muscle men took charge. As the vineyards moved towards their first crop, John Zeeman took over from Dirkie, and together with Petrus, supported by Francois, Jaco and myself, an enormous amount of time was invested driving back and forth, training teams, implementing systems and fine-tuning every detail of vineyard management.
Then came 2025. A banger of a year when it comes to quality.
And so, with the addition of the Ankerblok vineyard to the original Rivierblok, the trajectory of Little William changed a bit - this is the future of Little William.
The style is becoming more defined. More feminine. More spicy. A touch of Old World character combined with South African elegance and sunshine.
When you combine a remarkable vintage with an epic site - something special happens.
In the cellar, we have also gradually transitioned the wine into the finest European oak casks we could source. The result is not oak for the sake of oak, but rather another layer of excitement — the glue that binds every piece of “lekkerte” together. The 2025 offers a glimpse into what Little William can become.
Gee gas! dis winter in die Wes Kaap.