Atlas Swift is the personal project of Martin and Welma Smith, a husband-and-wife team with deep roots in the South African wine world. Martin is a seasoned winemaker with international experience across Napa, France, and Italy, while Welma brings her background as a trained sommelier and wine judge. Together, they’ve built a label that’s all about precision, place, and storytelling.

The name Atlas Swift reflects their philosophy: strength and movement, groundedness and grace. Their wines are site-specific expressions sourced from five distinct regions across the Cape. Each Chardonnay is made the same way in the cellar, allowing the vineyard to speak clearly and without interference. It’s a study in terroir, told through texture, tension, and detail.

Each label features a warrior woman whose colours are drawn from the landscape that shaped the wine. Welma’s synesthesia—her ability to taste in colour—guides the palette, blending her sensory experience with the visual identity of each bottle. It’s a deeply personal, intuitive process that brings the wines to life in more ways than one.

Martin, a lifelong surfer, painted the cellar floor ocean blue—a nod to the waves he misses while raising two young kids and building Atlas Swift from the ground up. The wines may be serious, but the spirit behind them is full of energy, movement, and a love for the journey.