Winemaker Notes
#49 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2025
Golden hued and full bodied, with melon and spicy baked apple aromas. Layered, with mineral notes enhanced by honeycomb and caramel flavors from lees contact. This wine is a great example of the harmonious balance which can be achieved between fruit and delicate oak/vanilla flavors, as they combine to form complex, soft flavors with sufficient body to enhance even spicy and full flavored meals.
Can be served with varied spicy dishes, full flavoured fish or chicken dishes. Ideal with crayfish, prawns. A true benchmark for relaxed enjoyment.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This creamy, rounded white has aromas and flavors of baked apples, nectarines, butter and mango crumble. It’s full-bodied, ripe and silky with tasty yellow-fruit character.
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Wine Spectator
A lovely, silky white, with vivid acidity and a subtle streak of chalky sapidity layered with flavors of yellow apple, pear, lemon meringue and chamomile, plus a rich touch of hazelnut. Refreshing hints of quinine and grapefruit pith make a sweep on the finish.
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Vinous
The 2024 Chenin Blanc Old Vine Reserve spends nine months in 400-litre oak barrels with around 30% new oak. This time, the nose takes a few swirls to find its groove, cohering nicely, though with appealing scents of apple blossom, linden and smoky hazelnut notes that emerge with time. The palate is well balanced, with a subtle oak influence guiding the style and hints of nougat in the background that lend it a sweetness and just nudge it a bit away from Chenin. Still, a delicious, early-drinking Chenin.
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.