Gaborone’s long-awaited wine club finally takes shape, bringing together curious drinkers, premium bottles and a growing community built around discovery, conversation and consistency.
By Phenyo Motlhagodi
Hurrah. At last.
A CLUB ARRIVES
On Friday evening, at the Fine Brands Tasting Room in Phakalane, something that had been quietly building for years finally took shape. The Gaborone Wine Club is no longer a half-finished idea, a “we should really do this” conversation, or one of those ambitious notions that survives only as a second glass discussion. It exists now, properly, and with intent.
The launch was deliberately small. A handful of wine enthusiasts, industry players and the quietly curious gathered with glasses in hand, not entirely sure what they were walking into, but aware that this was not just another tasting. It was the beginning of something with a longer horizon. A club, yes, but also a framework for how wine can be experienced in Gaborone when it is given a little more thought than “what’s cold?”
THE WINES
We opened with a Stellenrust Spumante Rosé, light and bright, doing what good sparkling wine should do: loosening shoulders, softening the room, and making everyone behave just a little less like strangers. From there came a Ghost Corner Wild Ferment Sauvignon Blanc, textured and expressive, followed by a David & Nadia Chenin Blanc that was precise, quietly confident and far too well behaved to shout for attention. A David & Nadia Grenache Noir asked for a bit more focus, before a Ghost Corner Pinot Noir closed the evening in a way that felt layered, slightly brooding and entirely appropriate. The wines mattered, naturally, but they were never the point. The point was community.
If I am honest, the club began from a slightly selfish place. After more than two decades of drinking wine, travelling, visiting vineyards, collecting bottles and trying to learn as much as possible both formally and otherwise, I realised that what was missing was not access. It was not even knowledge. It was continuity. It was the absence of a consistent space where wine is not merely consumed, but understood, discussed, challenged and shared over time.
WINE CULTURE
Gaborone has long had wine drinkers. What it has not really had is a structured wine culture. We travel, we taste, we discover excellent vineyards, cellars and restaurants across the Cape and beyond, then come home to a retail environment that, while improving, still leans toward the familiar and the predictable. Restaurants respond to what moves. Distributors respond to volume. And before long, the cycle takes care of itself. Safe bottles stay safe because safe bottles sell. It is not a scandal, just a market behaving like a market.
But beneath that surface there has always been a quieter, more curious group. People who want to try more, understand more, and not feel like they need a special occasion to open something interesting on a Tuesday. The Gaborone Wine Club is built for that group, and as it turns out, that group is not small.
BUILT TO LAST
What began on Friday is a membership-led platform built around discovery, access and, most importantly, consistency. Monthly gatherings rather than one-off appearances. Wines that are not always visible on shelves. Conversations with winemakers and respected voices in the industry. A shared language that develops over time instead of in isolation, because wine, like most worthwhile things, gets better when you keep showing up for it.
There is also a broader point here, and it matters. Retail in Botswana is already showing signs of evolution, with select TOPS at SPAR stores making deliberate steps toward stocking more interesting and premium wines. That is not accidental. It is what happens when a market begins to breathe a little differently. Our partnership with TOPS at SPAR allows the club to feed that process, offering insight into what members are discovering, discussing and wanting more of. Over time, that shapes retail. And when retail broadens with confidence, distribution follows, and the market becomes more responsive in ways that benefit everyone.
GLASS BY GLASS
Friday night hinted at what that can look like. People spoke about the wines as they should: what they reminded them of, where they had tasted something similar, which meals came to mind, what memory rose with the glass. The conversation moved easily from flavour to place to story and back again. No one was trying to win a lecture competition, which is usually the best sign that wine is in good company.
In practical terms, members gather monthly, receive a complimentary bottle, and gain access to wines that are not always available in retail. There are engagements with winemakers, interaction with industry voices, a dedicated newsletter called Moretlwa, and preferential access and pricing through TOPS at SPAR stores. In short, it is not just a club that talks about wine. It is a club that intends to move people closer to it.
WIDER AMBITION
The larger ambition is simple enough: to build something durable. A sense of consistency. A sense of belonging. A shared understanding that wine is not only an occasional indulgence, but a living, evolving experience that deepens with context, conversation and repetition. Fine Brands, TOPS at SPAR and this column in the Botswana Gazette are all part of that wider architecture.
After 22 years of drinking wine, I realised I was not looking for another great bottle. I was looking for a better way to experience it.
The Gaborone Wine Club is, in many ways, the start of that.
Phenyo Motlhagodi writes the Botswana Gazette wine column, Pour Decisions, is Convener of the Gaborone Wine Club, and a Chartered PR Practitioner who runs Tennyson PR, Influence and Reputation Management.