When It’s Wine o’Clock, Do a La RicMal Wine Tasting

For the longest time, I have been dying to try wines by La RicMal. I never seem to get there, and I can’t seem to find the brand in local liquor stores closest to where I live, so I just put it down to bad luck and something that would happen when it’s meant to.

The stars aligned on Sunday past, and I was not disappointed. My hubby and I wanted to be near the beach because it was a beautiful day but out in the south. Traffic was not for the faint of heart, so we ventured in the direction of the Waterfront. We decided to park at the Silo and stroll to wherever the wind took us.

First stop, Makers Landing. As we entered, I realised that we were now in La RicMal country because this is where they opened their Wine Emporium some time back.
The decision was made. We were tasting wine for breakfast. Being responsible adults, we decided to line our tummies the only way we knew how; the Cape Malay way. Samoosas for breakfast! Samoosas in hand, we approached the La RicMal Wine Emporium and were welcomed with open arms by the warm and wonderful Zayne Adams, and that’s a funny story all on its own.

Zayne was so friendly and ready to seat us and tell us all about La RicMal. Now I’m not going to go into too much detail because, let’s be honest, I’m no wine connoisseur; I just love to drink them.

Oh, and I want to let you in on a little secret… Even though La RicMal Wines has a history of running sponsored content on Bruinou.com, until today, the day that this article is published, the folks at La RicMal have no idea that I am a content contributor doing reviews on eateries, events and places of interest for this website. I also didn’t tell our editor that I was going there.

Getting to Know La RicMal Wines

Here is what I learned. La RicMal is a brown-owned father-and-son business that was started in 2007. I feel like I want to shout, “Where have they been all my life?” because honestly, I hadn’t heard of them until around 2019. That is neither here nor there, though. What matters is that they are here now, and they will not be going anywhere, because we, that is me and everybody I know, and hopefully you too, are going to support their business by ordering their wines for weddings and funerals and every celebration in between.

Their grapes are grown exclusively on bush vines and are solely dependent on the weather and the natural surroundings. They are grown in the Darling region of the Western Cape. Their La RicMal Supreme range of wines are varietals, which means one grape-type or cultivar per type of wine, so it’s not blended.
La RicMal does make a range of blended wines named Lerato, and there is nothing wrong with blended wines. It’s just a matter of preference, and we decided that we’d taste their Lerato range of blended wines on another day.

La RicMal wines are exported to various places around the world and locally, you can find them in Shoprite Liquor Stores around the country, as well as Tops at Spar Liquor Stores.
There are also a number of independent liquor stores and wine boutiques that sell La RicMal wines.

If their wines are not in your local Shoprite or Tops at Spar, you are welcome to let them know via the contact details at the end of this article. You can also use these contact details to order wine per case directly from La RicMal.

While the La RicMal Wine Emporium at Makers Landing, V&A Waterfront functions as both a Wine Bar & Off-Sales Wine Retailer, the family business also owns the off-sales wine retail outlet, the La RicMal Wine Boutique at Shop 13A in the Cape Town International Airport, Arrivals Shopping Precinct.

Okay that’s enough of how the wine gets made and sold, so let’s get on to the best part; some wine tasting.

The La RicMal Wine Tasting Experience

We did the standard Wine Tasting Package at R100 per person, which consisted of their 4 most popular La RicMal Supreme wines: their Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon. There are also other wine tasting packages available at different price points, of which the value propositions are surprisingly affordable.

I am a big fan of Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc in general, and every now and then I will enjoy a Cabernet Sauvignon, but generally I stick to the first two. Let me tell you though; I am now a big fan of all four of these under the La RicMal banner.

The Sauvignon Blanc is so light and refreshing and easy on the palate, and at R50 a bottle it is an absolute steal to pair with your salads, fish and shellfish!
The Merlot is smooth and tasty and will pair so well with red meats and pastas.

The Shiraz I was sceptical about because I don’t generally like the over peppery taste of them, but this one was so delicious. I ain’t telling a lie when I say that I will have this in my wine cabinet soon. My hubby is a fan of Shiraz in general, but he says this is the best one he has had in a while.
The Cabernet Sauvignon was just as delicious to round off the tasting.

La RicMal Wine Emporium’s Amazing Host, Zayne

Overall, it was a wonderful experience and a lovely tasting filled with interesting conversations we had with Zayne. We found out we have so much in common, and just like him, we also enjoy a quiet night in with good food and quality wine to match.

A fun fact about Zayne is that he has had many interesting encounters being mistaken for the renowned, late, great Cape Town musician Zayn Adam. He mentioned one incident many years back when he worked at The Baxter, and his manager called him over the PA system. On arrival, he found that the singer Zayn Adam had also responded to the call, and they had a good laugh together about it. Zayne, the wine connoisseur, is a lovely, warm person. He was engaging, friendly and eager to answer questions. We loved talking to him and will definitely be back to visit him soon.

Another fun fact about the emporium is that you can book tables for large groups and have a corporate function there if you like. They open daily till 6pm but are licensed to sell until 8pm. They will therefore accommodate you if you want to make a booking for a little bit later. Just speak to Zayne and he will sort you out.

La RicMal Wines at The Forefront of Transformation

Changing the Trajectory from Our Community’s Historic Relationship With Alcohol

It is unavoidable that we need to talk about our heavy history with alcohol in our Coloured community. The Dop System, aka the Tot System, is a sore point for our people. It is a tragic legacy of the wine industry that the Dop System has caused generational struggles with alcoholism for some in our communities.We can never be okay with that.
However, this doesn’t mean that we cannot support our very talented wine makers from the brown community.

There is a very big difference between the Dop System being used by slave masters to enslave our people and our brown people taking the opportunity to turn it around and learn a valuable skill that stems from a passion for the origin of wine.

While alcoholism is a big problem on the Cape flats, it doesn’t make all brown people alcoholics. Many of us can appreciate and enjoy a wine with our food without it being a problem or a catalyst for abusive or violent behaviour. We need to start changing the narrative and address the issues that lead us to use wine and other substances as an escape from our problems.

La RicMal makes it clear that a key part of their a mission to foster transformation in South Africa’s wine industry is to educate the general public, and especially People of Colour, on the benefits of enjoying wine in a responsible manner. An example of is the Department of Trade & Industry endorsing La RicMal’s South African Wines Value Kit as an invaluable tool in educating people about wine.

In a 2025 article about La RicMal Wine’s role in transformation, the CEO of a RicMal, Malcolm Green stated, “When people are more knowledgeable about wine and obtain a better understanding of wine, they tend to become more conscious of how they consume wine.”

Let us show our healthy and positive support for this family wine business, and may they continue to grow from strength to strength.

PS. Head over to the La RicMal Facebook Page and Follow them to stay up to date with new developments from the brand.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is Not a Sponsored Article. While La RicMal Wines regularly cooperates with Bruinou.com when we publish Sponsored Content created for them, this article by Anthea Bissolati was written in her own capacity as an Eatery, Events and Places of Interest Reviewer. Anthea visited La RicMal unannounced. It was her first visit there and she also did not reveal to them that she is a Bruinou.com writer. She also did not declare to our editorial team her intention to visit La RicMal prior to going there.

If you would like to contact La RicMal wines to directly order wine by the case from them, please use the below details in the image below.