A poem crafted by time, grounded in earth – Phato

The craft of winemaking relies on a continuous natural cycle: planting, growth, harvest, maturation, and ageing. It’s the product of sunlight, soil, rain, and nutrients, and time. It requires a light touch but a decisive palette. Most importantly, it demands patience and passion. Once it’s finally poured into a glass, it encapsulates these ingredients – simply alchemised into liquid form.

Like wine itself, our wine experience has matured and evolved. A continuation of our food journey, our wine journey mirrors the wine-making process – where planning meets patience, and careful curation culminates in moments that echo down through the decades. It elevates our food experience and is a big part of how we enjoy meals, and honour nature. A conduit between humans and nature, it encapsulates the sense of place and time when it was made.

In our mission to refine this journey further and allow it to be a conduit of exploration and adventure, we’ve sought ways to make it unique, personal, and impossible to imitate. The result is the product of an evolution of a journey to one that’s becoming increasingly more curated, allowing each guest’s experience to be distinctive from the next.

This has taken the form of a creation of a signature case of wines under Singita’s own label, Phato. Phato is a collection of wines that capture the beauty of the Cape, created in collaboration with some of South Africa’s most celebrated winemakers. Singita translates to ‘place of miracles’, and we see these wines as miracles of place: each an expression of its diverse climates and soils, rooted in some of the oldest terroirs on earth.

The name ‘Phato’ comes from the Tsonga word ‘Xiphato’, meaning ‘poem’. It is a reminder that wine is a miracle of collaboration between humans and nature immortalised, the poetry that comes from land, time, and alchemy meeting.

Jorg Pfützner, the head of Singita’s wine portfolio, believes that nothing can, or should, compete with the majesty of nature, and that rather, wine should complement the experience of being in the wild, allowing guests to fully experience the bush, enhancing it through an intrinsic connection to the land.

In concert, these two elements – nature encapsulated, and nature unbound – take the form of enjoying some of the world’s best wines in the tranquillity of the wilderness.

Wine can be a catalyst for moments that leave a lasting impact. They can be enjoyed on your own, but ideally, they’re shared. “I believe it's very important that you consider wine as something to enjoy with others. When you can mesh wine, places, and people – that, I think, is a perfect moment,” says Jorg.

In sharing Phato with our guests, we want to make the stay more meaningful by selecting the styles that resonate with you, in that particular moment. The intention is to extend the personalisation of our cellar experience to these game drives and in-room contemplation.

Guests’ rooms have a choice of both white and red, and Field Guides can personalise sundowner stops with a curated selection. Through exploring these unique varieties, made in collaboration with industry innovators, our guests can challenge and enchant their palates, and discover new wines that will cement an occasion forever in their memories.