Est. 2026 · Brits & the Umko Valley, South Africa
A South African citrus house made in the Umko Valley. The first vintage is a single-orchard Valencia — open pan, vintaged, numbered. Fifty jars.
The Belief
Citrus carries terroir. Bitterness is sophistication. Sunlight has flavour. These are the working assumptions of the house.
We are not preserve makers chasing a trend. We are citrus obsessives building something meant to last — classified, vintaged, and made one disciplined jar at a time.
The Origin
A deliberate two-region house. The 2026 vintage is grown and made in the Umko Valley; the Highveld fruit that gives the house its name is the work of the vintage to come.
Deep in the hinterland of the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, the Umko Valley is where Magalies is made. Subtropical warmth, river-valley calm and an unhurried pace — the conditions for slow, open-pan cooking and the patient skim discipline that clarity demands. The 2026 vintage is grown and made here, start to finish.
The fruit of the first vintage. Grown in the valley where it is made, picked at the turn of the season and cooked within the week. Bright, generous and unmistakably of this place — a sweet orange handled with a bitter orange's discipline.
Thick-skinned and heavy with peel oil, grown in the Magaliesberg near Brits under hard Highveld light. Concentrated bitterness and aromatic lift no European house can source. The varietal the house is built toward — not yet in the jar.
The Release
The house is designed for a range. The first vintage is a single wine: fifty numbered jars of Umko Valley Valencia, made in one open-pan run. When there is more to offer, there will be more here.
Fifty jars, numbered by hand. Choose your quantity and send the order — we confirm your jar numbers, payment details and dispatch date by return.
The Craft
A winemaker and a citrus grower on the team. We treat set, clarity and bitterness the way an estate treats tannin and acid — and we log every batch.
Medium cut, bright oils, elegant bitterness. The everyday flagship.
First-press peel, single harvest, named orchard block. Vintaged.
Top cut from the best block in the best year. Numbered and signed.
Restrained, experimental, allocation only. Where we take the risks.
Quietly, in the background, we are building toward the Dalemain World Marmalade Awards in Cumbria — the world's only global championship. A category win by 2031 is the standard we hold every jar to. But the marmalade comes first; the medals can follow.
The House
Six people, each carrying one discipline the house depends on.