Winemaker Notes
The 2023 vintage benefited from maturation on its lees in both concrete tanks and old casks, a crucial process that imparts remarkable texture and palate weight to the wine. Although Chenin Blanc inherently possesses substantial structure, the addition of a small amount of Semillon and Grenache Blanc rounds out the blend beautifully. The resulting aromas are flinty, enriched with notes of honey, orange blossom, and white stone fruit. Despite being a smaller vintage, the 2023 release displays impressive concentration in its wines.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
The first vintage of this wine, a blend of chenin blanc from the property (previously bottled as single-vineyard wines Skool, Golden Slopes, Klip Kop, Kelder). Sliced pears, honey, chamomile, wildflowers, lemons, salted almonds and seaweed make for an aromatically complex, intense and flavorful wine. It’s full-bodied, creamy and layered. Delicious and very fresh too.
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Wine Spectator
Fragrant and well-spiced, with apple peel acidity enlivening a silky range of baked peach, dried raspberry, dried mint and mandarin orange peel flavors. A rich hint of honeycomb shows on the finish. Drink now through 2028. 25,000 cases made, 4,000 cases imported.
Unquestionably one of the most diverse grape varieties, Chenin Blanc can do it all. It shines in every style from bone dry to unctuously sweet, oaked or unoaked, still or sparkling and even as the base for fortified wines and spirits. Perhaps Chenin Blanc’s greatest asset is its ever-present acidity, maintained even under warm growing conditions. Somm Secret—Landing in South Africa in the mid 1800s, today the country has double the acreage of Chenin Blanc planted compared to France. There is also a new wave of dedicated producers committed to restoring old Chenin vines.
Literally meaning "the black land," Swartland takes its name from the endangered, indigenous "renosterbos" (translating to rhino bush), which used to be plentiful enough to turn the entire landscape a dark color certain during times of year. The district, attracting some of the most adventurous and least interventionist winemakers, excels in robust and full-bodied reds as well as quality fortified wines.