Follow the Swallow
This week The Citizen ran a feature about what we have built at Leonardslee and Benguela Cove, written by Brian Berkman. He understood the thing most people miss, so I want to tell that story properly here, in my own words.
There is a swallow on our Leonardslee wine label. It is not decoration. The barn swallow flies sixteen thousand kilometres every year between South Africa and the United Kingdom, and we see them at Leonardslee as we pick the last grapes of the season, just before they head back to Africa. That bird is the truest thing I can tell you about how I have built these businesses. One foot in the Cape, one in Sussex, always moving between the two. There are four smaller swallows on the label as well. They are my four children.
"The barn swallow flies sixteen thousand kilometres every year between South Africa and the United Kingdom… That bird is the truest thing I can tell you about how I have built these businesses."
Where this started
I was born in what was then Rhodesia and left as an 11 year old, as the war intensified. I arrived in England with my parents and very little else. The security of a comfortable childhood was gone almost overnight. What followed was a long run of reinventions. Businesses that failed. A spell running a cabaret lounge in Johannesburg in the turbulent early nineties. A return to England as a single mother of four, in temporary accommodation with water coming through the walls. To make ends meet, my mother and I worked as DJs at children's parties.
I tell you this not for sympathy but because it explains the rest. When you have started from nothing more than once, you stop being afraid of starting again. That is the whole story.
"South African talent, English stage, world standard."
Today I own two wine estates nine thousand kilometres apart. Benguela Cove sits in Hermanus near Walker Bay in the Cape. Leonardslee Lakes and Gardens, Leonardslee Wine Estate and Mannings Heath Golf sit in West Sussex. They look like very different places. Leonardslee is quintessentially English: Grade I listed grounds, ninety-seven hectares of ancient woodland, seven lakes, rhododendron valleys, and wallabies that have lived on the estate since 1889. Benguela Cove is the Cape at its most generous, lagoon and vineyard under big African light.
But we are doing the same thing in both hemispheres, and it is a simple idea. We make serious wine, and we refuse to make it pompous.
English wine tourism has tended towards polite formality. We brought the warmth and accessibility of Cape wine culture to Sussex instead. Sabrage. Wine education without the lecture. Food, accommodation and entertainment woven into one generous experience rather than sold as separate transactions. I have always believed you need multiple revenue streams to make these businesses work, and that none of them should feel like hard work for the guest.
"When you have started from nothing more than once, you stop being afraid of starting again. That is the whole story."
The standard is real
Warmth is not an excuse for being second rate, so let me be clear about the quality. Our winemaker Johann Fourie, whose career runs through Benguela Cove and KWV, oversees the wine across both estates. By early last year our Leonardslee Brut Reserve had taken gold at the WineGB Awards. More tellingly, it was chosen to be served at the British Embassy in Paris for the King's birthday. That is no small thing for an English sparkling wine, and I will keep making the case that our sparkling can stand serious comparison with Champagne.
In the kitchen at Restaurant Interlude, Jean Delport, who followed me from South Africa, holds a Michelin star, three AA Rosettes and the title of AA Hospitality's Best Restaurant with Rooms in England for 2025 and 2026. He is only the second chef in the history of Great British Menu to have had two dishes served at its twentieth anniversary banquet. South African talent, English stage, world standard.
"We make serious wine, and we refuse to make it pompous."
An invitation
If you are South African and heading to the UK this year, come to Leonardslee. It is an hour from London, it is run by people who sound like home, and it is a taste of that home raised to its very best. Walk the gardens, eat at Interlude, drink the sparkling that went to Paris.
And if you are closer to me, in the Cape, Benguela Cove is on your doorstep. There is no excuse.
Thank you to Brian Berkman and The Citizen for telling our story so well. The swallows will be heading south again soon. I tend to follow them.
Penny Streeter OBE
"South African talent, English stage, world standard."
Read the original feature in The Citizen here.
Reproduced with permission, The Citizen and Brian Berkman.
Thank you to Brian Berkman and The Citizen for telling our story so well. The swallows will be heading south again soon. I tend to follow them.
