Berene Sauls has exceeded all expectations with Tesselaarsdal. In more than one respect, Tesselaarsdaal is a breakthrough. Formerly employed by Hamilton Russell Estates and mentored by Anthony Hamilton Russell, not only is the first wine project for Berene, but importantly it is the first wine project wholly-owned by a member of a “previously disadvantaged community” in the Hemel-en-Aarde area and, indeed, the Overstrand. The wine is named after the historic rural hamlet Tesselaarsdal, not far from Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge, where Berene was born. It was at Tesselaarsdal where Berene’s ancestors once lived as freed slaves on land bequeathed to them in 1810 by former East India Company Settler, Johannes Tesselaar. The naming of her first wine appropriately honors her roots.