Our Story

Fogwell is a very small South African wine project with one simple aim: beautiful Syrah. A collaboration between the Fogwell and Alheit families, the wine grew out of a long friendship between Chris Alheit and Dr. William Fogwell, a chiropractor, outdoorsman, and fellow wine lover. The idea was first hatched during a camping trip in the bush, where the two friends imagined making a red wine together with the same honesty, restraint, and sense of place that define the best wines of the Cape.

Based in the coastal town of Hermanus, Fogwell works with two distinctive dry-farmed vineyard sites: one in the Swartland on schist soils and one in Polkadraai, southern Stellenbosch, on granite. The parcels bring contrasting personalities to the finished wine. The schist site contributes darker, brooding notes of black olive, violets, and herbs, while the granite vineyard brings lift, perfume, red fruit, pepper, and fine tannin.

The winemaking is simple and careful, with spontaneous fermentation, whole-cluster inclusion, gentle extraction, and aging in a combination of cement vessels and old oak barrels. The aim is not weight or excess, but a Syrah that is complex, savory, energetic, and finely balanced.