Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Decanter
Attractive, mineral notes thread all the way through this focused Chenin, with a taut, leesy, smoky richness and concentration, showing pure balance and palate length. Tight green papaya fruits on the nose and palate, showing how this wine is poised and graceful. Firm but undoubtedly kind, with a marvellous elegance. Beautiful nose of yellow pastille fruits, pineapple and green apple. Textural, balanced, fresh and complex. Love the sweet and sour element that really lifts this wine. True class.
-
Vinous
The 2015 Chenin Blanc Reserve does not quite deliver the same degree of complexity as its peers, perhaps a little more pressing that lost some of the precision. The palate is balanced with citrus peel and orange rind, modest weight with a controlled and persistent finish. Fine and it improves in the glass too so that eventually I reach a very commendable score. Don't be afraid to decant this.
-
Wine Enthusiast
This is a lush, creamy Chenin, brimming with rich notes of honeycomb, honeydew, ripe peach and orange cream. The palate is full and toasty, though ample acidity helps to keep the mouthfeel bright. Notes of baking spice and toasted nuts unfold on the back and linger long on the close. It's delicious now, but should hold and evolve well through 2021.
-
Wine & Spirits
This is a selection from estate vines planted in 1972, harvested in four passes, fermented without added yeasts in French oak barrels (25 percent new), and left to rest on the lees in barrels for close to a year. Though present, the oak doesn't get in the way of the wine's floral notes, scents of jasmine and chamomile that lend depth to the notes of fresh cream. It does emerge in a gingery note in the finish, needing bottle age to meld. Then decant it, and the spice will cozy up to blanquette de veau.
-
Wine Spectator
A broad, creamy, honeyed version, with an alluring toasted hazelnut accent framing the core of creamed peach, apricot and melon flavors. The long finish lets matchstick and dried quince notes in. Not shy in style. Drink now through 2019.
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.
South Africa’s most famous wine-producing district, Stellenbosch, surrounds the historic town with the same name; fine winemaking here dates back to the late 1600s. Its valleys of granite, sandstone and alluvial loam soils between the towering blue-grey mountains of Stellenbosch, Simonsberg and Helderberg have the capacity to produce beautiful wines from many varieties. The climate is warm Mediterranean, tempered by the cool Atlantic air of nearby False Bay.
Perhaps most well-known for its Pinotage and Bordeaux blends, Stellenbosch also produces noteworthy wines from Syrah, Chenin blanc, Chardonnay and Sauvignon blanc. The district’s wards—Banghoek, Bottelary, Devon Valley, Jonkershoek Valley, Papegaaiberg, Polkadraai Hills and Simonsberg-Stellenbosch—all produce distinctive wines from vines with relatively low yields.