The Garajeest Wines

The Garajeest is the Cape Town wine label of Zimbabwean-born winemaker Callan Williams, who left a career as a ballet dancer to pursue wine. She studied oenology, viticulture and cellar management, and made wine for several estates, including as assistant winemaker at Iona. She set up The Garajeest in 2014, and her debut 2015 vintages were released in February 2017. That same year, she was named one of South Africa’s Young Guns of Wine.

Williams runs every part of the business herself, from making the wine to selling it. The range centres on two single-varietal wines: Jim, a Sémillon, and Bruce, a Cabernet Franc. Both were among James Suckling’s Top 100 Wines of the Year in 2023, and both scored 93 points from Tim Atkin.