Yo El Rey

Simondium, South Africa

Angelo van Dyk didn’t come from a wine producing family. He grew up on the east coast of South Africa in Durban, on the opposite side of the country to the Cape Winelands. Here, straddling the beaches of the warm Indian Ocean, you’ll mostly find sugarcane, banana and pineapple plantings. There isn’t a vineyard in sight. However, it was his parents – incredible hosts who always entertained visitors over long, lazy lunches and celebrated life with good food and good wine – who encouraged him to pursue his winemaking curiosities.

After moving to London to work as a sommelier, Angelo began to explore working harvests abroad. After stages in Stellenbosch, the Veneto, and most notably, in Northern California in 2016 with Pax Mahle at Pax Wines (then Wind Gap Wines). Here he worked with Scott Schultz (Jolie-Laide), Jaimee Motley (Jaimee Motley Wines), Rosalind Reynolds (Emme Wines), and Adrien Laroche (Lascadla, Provence), and it was this experience that was the catalyst to really pursue the idea of producing wines under his own label. 

He works with négoce fruit that he purchases from small, trusted growers, who farm organically and biodynamically across the Cape. The range has become more concise in recent years, as he now focuses his attention to a special farm called Good Luck in Walker Bay, just outside of the village of Stanford. Here, farmers Tabby and Alex cultivate 1.2ha of Sauvignon Blanc and 1.6ha of Syrah. Their permaculture homestead is an inspiring oasis where they produce organic vegetables and honey, graze their cattle and goats in the vineyards in the autumn, and approach everything they do in a very holistic and thoughtful way. He works closely with the two of them, and takes all of the fruit from this jewel in the crown of the appellation. Moving forward, he plans to build Yo El Rey’s range solely from this vineyard.

These wines have evolved tremendously since his first vintage back in 2018. They are more open and more vivid than ever, and he attributes this to him finding confidence in himself and in the vineyards he is working with.