Willie and Tania De Waal are the fifth generation of the De Waal Family to own the farm, Schoone Oord, which Willie’s great-great grandfather bought in 1877 with a 45 carat diamond he discovered at Kimberley in the Northern Cape. He grew up in a vigneron family and continued this tradition on Schoone Oord, where it was passed on to the generations that followed him.

In 1993, Willie and Tania decided to start making wine from the 200 hectares of vines they were so passionately nurturing. Beginning with 50 litres in 1993, they progressed gradually and made their first barrique in 1997. The quality was exceptional, and having fairly quickly  finished the whole barrique with the help of their wine loving friends, they realised the scope for opportunity and in 1999 made 20 barriques. Since then they have gained international recognition, fantastic critiques of the wine and we are extremely excited to be their representative in the UK market. 

The de Waal family are particularly proud of their cellar, which was built in 1912 with conglomerate rock, whose gravel components also form the ground in many of their vineyard sites. Originally equipped with concrete fermentation vats and tanks, the cellar was recently renovated and the family installed 10 new 2500litre French oak fermentation vats and brand new insulation and cooling systems to regulate the ambient temperature in the winery and barrique cellar, and cooling plates to control fermentation temperature.

The ‘Scali’ name derives from a combination of the farm name ‘Schoone Oord’ and the Africaans word for shale, ‘Skalie’. Shale is the main component in the vineyard soil and the family intend the name to express the intimacy and interaction between the family, farm, and soil. They bottle the wines at the Scali cellar and all the packaging is done by hand.