Clean South African Wine for Your Birthday

You can taste a place when the rules, the climate, and the culture all pull in the same direction and South African wine is a perfect example. We’re joined by Clive Botha of African Traditions Wines, who came to the United States in 1992 and built a direct-to-consumer wine importing business for people who fall in love with South African bottles while traveling, especially on safari, and want to find that same wine again back home.

We talk about what Clive calls “clean, clean, clean” wine: chemical-free winemaking, transparent labeling, and standards that require a bottle labeled Cabernet or Chardonnay to be 100% that grape. He explains why that matters for flavor and trust, and why many customers say they enjoy the wine without the headaches and hangovers they associate with other options. If you care about what’s actually in your glass, this conversation gives you a clear framework for reading labels and choosing wines with fewer surprises.

Then we zoom out to the Western Cape and why it produces such standout Sauvignon Blanc. Clive breaks down the geography that shapes the grapes: mountain shade that keeps vineyards cooler after midday, shale soils that hold moisture, winter rainfall patterns, and the unique meeting of warm and cold ocean currents that helps stabilize temperatures. We also keep it practical with birthday perks, including discounts and local Florida delivery options that make celebrating easy.

If you enjoy wine stories with real details and usable tips, listen through and share it with a friend planning a birthday toast. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us what bottle you’d open to celebrate your next big day.

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_02 0:01

It's the birthday celebration podcast. It's the birthday celebration politics. It's the birthday celebration politics.

SPEAKER_03 0:24

Welcome to the birthday celebration podcast, Treasure Coast. I'm your host, Garfield Boyd, with Cleve Bota with African Traditional Wines. Cleve, how's it going today?

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Fantastic for my friend, fantastic. And you?

SPEAKER_03 0:39

Listen, I'm I'm well, I'm well. We're excited to learn all about you and your business. Tell us about your company.

From South Africa To Wine Importing

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Okay, um, I was uh born and raised in South Africa. Um, my family started in South Africa in 1672. Um, I came to the United States in 1992 and started my importing wine. There was no wine at that South African wine at that point in time because South Africa was under sanctions. Um, and then basically I started it um first trying to sell it to liquor stores and so forth, but it was too difficult. So we became a direct mail order company, and most of our wine gets sold to people who go on safari in Africa. They fell fall in love with the wine over there, and then they come back and they look at look for it. Yeah, so uh that's our main audience is uh people who go on safari.

Why Western Cape Wine Tastes Different

SPEAKER_00 1:36

A couple of things about wine in South Africa. South Africa is one of the is the oldest country in the world, in the new world, to make wine. We've been making wine since 1669. Um the French Huguenots that was uh fleeing prosecution in France brought over their grapes and started the wine business over there. Uh they started it very, very uh on a high um uh what's the word I'm looking for? Very high performance, number one, and and and strict rules and regulations. So our wine is completely chemical-free. There's no chemicals in our wine, so people don't get headaches and hangovers from our wine. Um when our wine is stated that it's Cabernet or Chardonnay, it must be 100% Cabernet. No mixes are allowed. If it is a blend, it must state on the label what the blend is and the percentages of the blends. Um, what South Africa is most famous for is probably Sauvignon Blanc. Um, and the reason for that is that um the photography of South Africa is of such a nature that uh the Sauvignon Blancs get planted on the shadow side of the mountain. So um after 12 o'clock, the mountain starts leaving a shadow and it's cooler, and that's what some Sauvignon Blanc loves, and that's how Sauvignon Blanc grows the best and gets the most flavor out of the soil. Um, our Sauvignon Blancs are also not irrigated, they're planted in shale, and uh because it's a Mediterranean kind of climate where we have only winter rain, no summer rain, and that's what grapes also love it's no summer rain. The shale has enough moisture to let the grapes uh get its nutrients from it. Um the other thing about South Africa is where the wine is grown is in the Western Cape, and what is unique about the Western Cape is on the east side we have the warm current from the equator, and on the west side we have the cold current from Antarctica. These two meet at the bottom of Africa, that's why it's called the Cape of Storms, because of the wild currents that that influence there. But during the day, we'll have a cool breeze from the cold current, and at night we'll have a warmer breeze from the uh warm current. So the temperature is very stable, which makes winemaking so much easier. Um, some of the farms that's uh producing wine, wine-producing farms have been in the same family for uh over 200 years. Um there's a big tradition and culture of winemaking in South Africa.

SPEAKER_03 4:42

So um the bottom line is your wine is good.

Birthday Discounts And Local Delivery

SPEAKER_03 4:50

I got a couple cases from you, gave it away to some friends, and they're still raving about it. Now, we have birthday people here looking to celebrate their birthday. Um, how can your business help people celebrate birthday? I know people popping bottles or you know, to celebrate their birthday. What do you do special for birthdays?

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Well, if it's your birthday, we'll immediately give you uh a discount. Um, depending on, you know, if you're a senior citizen, you get a bigger discount than a normal people, so it's between 10 and 15 percent off. Um if you live in the Florida area, um, we can uh certainly deliver to you uh free of charge, um, so there's no shipping costs involved. Um so that that makes it much easier uh for people to celebrate. And like I said, the the big thing with our wine is that it's it is chemical free. Um and people always ask me, what do you mean by chemical free? And if if you want me, can I interject that a little bit?

SPEAKER_03 5:59

Well, we we we we want to really talk about the celebration, we want to get a few people to celebrate their birthday. We want to just not celebrate that day, we want them to celebrate the entire month. Okay what special time of

Slow Season Stories And Clean Wine Takeaway

SPEAKER_03 6:14

the year. Now, you're a businessman, you know, every business has slow uh, you know, time when they're really busy and not so busy. What's your slowest months of the year for you? What would that be?

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Um our slowest month is probably the summer, uh, because most of the people that we uh sell to is is traveling, they're out of town, out of the country, and so forth. So yeah, this the summer is is probably the slowest month. Um actually, in fact, uh talking about birthdays, I am I've been invited to celebrate uh the 4th of July in uh Delaware on the river um with massive fireworks. Uh and I'm looking forward to that. And as you can see, I've got my celebration shirt on here. And my birthday is July 15th, so I'll be celebrating mine in Alaska. But yeah, I mean, the and you know, when I go to Alaska on a on fishing trips, um we we do do a lot of I celebrate my birthday there every year, but uh and I bring a lot of wine with me, and people just love the wine. You know, is this there's nothing wrong with this, but let me put it this way to celebrate your birthday, make it pleasurable and not have a hand headache and a hangover the next day by uh drinking some good wine.

One Thing To Remember And How To Order

SPEAKER_03 7:41

Listen, listen, we're about out of time, but I want you to leave our listeners with one thing. If there's one thing they should remember about African traditional wine, traditions wine, what would that one thing be?

SPEAKER_00 7:54

The one thing is that it's clean, that it's clean, clean, clean wine. It's just grape juice that's fermented. Uh, like even our Chardonnays, we don't use a lot of oak in it. It's very, very clean wine. Uh, and if people are interested, they can uh go to our website, which is africantradition.wine. Africantradition. Or they can phone me at 561-203-5394, and we can talk more about wine. I'd love to talk, I love talking about wine. That's my business for the last 36 years.

SPEAKER_03 8:28

Well, Clay, we really appreciate you being on the show. We wish you and your business the very best moving forward. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it very much.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

You've been listening to the birthday celebration.