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[title]Welcome to Mother Sippy, where we shine a light on the talented winemakers, brewers, distillers and mixologists that make sure the Mother City never goes thirsty! From new wine releases to taprooms pouring perfect pints, Mother Sippy is your guide to all that’s good and great in Cape Town’s world of drinks.
Inzuzo – ‘reward’ in isiZulu and isiXhosa – is a worker-owned wine company rooted in Sir Lowry’s Pass Village (SLPV) in the Helderberg winelands. It’s the product of a partnership between the workers and owners of Journey’s End estate. Following a soft launch into export markets earlier this year, the brand made its South African debut at the CapeWine 2025 trade show.
Inzuzo launched in 2024, shifting Journey’s End’s long-running outreach in the nearby village from a place of outreach work via their own foundation and ad-hoc donations towards an ownership-and-profits model.
Inzuzo is majority-owned (51%) by previously disadvantaged ‘BEE’ employees of Journey’s End and is positioned to create a long-term pipeline for funding arts and education in the village. Labels feature artwork created by local youth, and at CapeWine, the team replicated that process with a live mural installation to underscore the connection between the bottle and the community.
Winemaking for Inzuzo is led by Kaylin Willscott, who grew up in SLPV and rose through the ranks of the Cape Winemakers Guild Protégé Programme, working harvests at Spier, Warwick and Keermont before being named Protégé of the Year in 2023. She joined Journey’s End as assistant winemaker later that year.
“I’d always imagined doing my own label one day – far in the future – but Inzuzo took shape sooner than expected,” says Willscott. “It grew out of an art initiative we were supporting, and that sparked conversations about building a wine company that could sustainably fund community projects.”
Today, the Inzuzo range taps into selected vineyard parcels across the region to offer a snapshot of Cape vineyards.
“We mostly buy in the fruit, but there is also some wine bought in where appropriate,” says Willscott. “Occasionally, I can draw on small parcels available at the Journey’s End cellar. So it’s a collaborative model to select vineyards or taste samples, then blend and bottle under Inzuzo.”
Right now, Inzuzo is available with a pair of wines in three ranges.
Signature Range: “A white blend and a red blend in smaller volumes that most clearly express my winemaking style and the idea of a ‘signature of place’,” says Willscot.
Creative Range: Two expressive blends (red and white) with a bolder, more playful label aesthetic.
Transformative Range: single-varietal wines with colourful labels. “This is our more accessible, scalable tier and will likely drive the project’s sales,” says Willscott.
And what’s in the bottle? Early releases pitch a modern Cape profile of fruit-forward, textured wines, and although availability is currently limited as the brand gathers pace, expect that to grow quickly.
But what’s perhaps most striking is the label gracing each bottle of Inzuzo wine: the artworks created in the Village as part of the youth mural programme operating have been photographed and adapted for use on the bottles. It’s a visible thread connecting the wine to the community that stands to benefit in the long run.
Inzuzo has already begun building an export market, but local wine lovers can buy directly from Inzuzo at https://inzuzo.com/.
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