A luxury safari lodge in Botswana's Okavango Delta

The story of Xigera Safari Lodge is one of renewal. Of rebirth and family legacy, and of the pioneering spirit that drives us to seek out Africa’s wild spaces. The same spirit that inspired this remarkable reimagining, perhaps a complete reinvention, of an Okavango Delta safari. This is Xigera (pronounced ‘kee-jera’), named for the Pied Kingfisher that makes its home amid the watery channels of Botswana’s Moremi Game Reserve. Every aspect is handcrafted to beguile our guests’ senses and stir their souls – from the evocative interiors to one-of-a-kind encounters. But Xigera is equally a line in the sand. A raising of the bar. A bold statement in the realm of luxury safaris in Botswana, and an Okavango Delta safari experience like no other.

Handpicked harvest

At Bouchard Finlayson we believe that great wine begins in the vineyard. And after a year of careful cultivation, the vineyard and cellar team take enormous care when bringing in the harvest. All harvesting on the estate is done by hand by our highly skilled vineyard workers, who select only those grape bunches that have achieved optimum phenolic ripeness. With vineyard rows ripening at different times, this requires multiple harvests in each vineyard to pick each bunch at the perfect moment. It is labour intensive and time consuming, but we believe the end result is well worth the extra effort.

Inspired by Burgundy

Since the first vines were planted in 1989, the estate has followed the Burgundian tradition of high-density viticulture. Across most of the estate each hectare is planted with 8000 individual vines, planted in five-row blocks spaced just one metre from the adjacent row. This high-density approach stimulates healthy competition between the vines, improving colour, concentration and tannins in the grapes. In the warm climate of South Africa, greater leaf cover means that less of the vineyard soil is exposed to direct sunlight, creating a cooler microclimate within each vineyard.