South African Chenin hogs the limelight

100% Chenin Blanc. RS 1.8 g/l, pH 3.44, TA 6.3 g/l.
Bit of sulphur. Custard/vanilla/raw oak aromatics. Not charming. Green oak dominates throughout. Mouth-watering acidity, but there's a hole in the middle. Slightly drying/bitter end. (TC)

Single vineyard. Vines planted in 1956. RS 2.3 g/l, pH 3.38, TA 5.64 g/l.
Nuttiness and warm cobnuts and roasted cumin on the nose overlaying the sweetness of fruit on the palate. Sage and peaches, mid-summer apricots just picked. Wonderful grip and texture, taut. Plays like a Paganini violin solo. Hauntingly beautiful. (TC)

An old turn-of-the-century Cape vermouth, revived by Adi Badenhorst and Danish mixologist Lars Lyndgaard. Chenin Blanc fortified with spirit, sweetened with grape juice and flavoured with 35 botanicals including Quinchona bark, fynbos, kalmoes (calamus) and naartjies (clementine).
A fantastic vermouth, with a distinctively South African accent – bitter-sweet, grassy, with clementine-peel notes coming through strong and clear, top notes of clove, rooibos and ginger. Tasted with Adi's own Swaan tonic. I'd fall on this in a cocktail bar. Properly refreshing! (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc. Left on pre-fermentation lees.
Amazing nose! Green tea and avocado and seriously smoky! This is all fireworks and cordite smoke hanging in the air, then with electric tension, comes the sweet juicy green sap of Reine Claude and those tiny green-gold Biancheta figs. Textured, smoked pistachios. Long tendrils of flavour linger and glimmer on the tongue. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc. RS 1.8 g/l, pH 3.3, TA 6.1 g/l. Bottled June 2016.
Young, pure-fruited, bright and primary. Easy drinking. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc. RS 7 g/l, pH 3.17, TA 6.13 g/l.
Sandalwood and green tobacco spice open up to oranges and clove. Slightly smoky vanilla top note. Bold creaminess clad in expensive oak – sophisticated and competent and ambitious with racy apricot tang. Haute couture South African Chenin. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc. Wine (rather than juice) from Bottelary (Kaapzicht) and Simonsberg. Finished and blended at DeMorgenzon.
Spice and green and quite lean – very fresh, very peppery. Long wild grass and crisp apple finish with a shadow of honey curling back in towards the tongue. Good racy stuff. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc. RS 4.2 g/l, pH 3.54.
Vanilla-streaked nose, slightly occluded by smoke/sulphur (spontaneous fermentation?). Savoury with good acidity. Baked apple and pear in a corset of classy but emphatic oak. Lovely freshness, sultana sweetness, and lovely citrus. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc, RS 5.5 g/l, pH 3.25, TA 6.3 g/l. 
Refreshing, shower-scrub aromas – smells clean, grapefruity. Jalapeño! Green and salty and tangy – seaweed and tarragon-lime sorbet with a little touch of sweetness. Full of vim and vit. Roasted sesame seeds. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc. RS 3.5 g/l, pH 3.32, TA 5.8 g/l.
Full, luscious aromas of crème brûlée and apricots. Voluptuous flavours that billow up in the mouth, lavish and yet with stiletto-spiked acidity and talons of bitterness that bring a bit of snarl into all this pillowy richness. Bit of sage, dusty Mediterranean herbaceousness with complexity and depth and a sandy/silica spine running through from start to finish. Full-bodied, full-oaked, full-flavoured. An amplitude of Chenin Blanc. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc, vines 22 to 49 years old. 5% wood, fermented at low temperatures very slowly. Leaves on fine lees for several months. 2016 was a difficult vintage.
Cobnuts and floral perfume. Very fresh stone fruit and white flowers and spring nettles. Very very bright acidity. GV (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc. RS 2.5 g/l, pH 3.3, TA 6.1 g/l.
Smells very reduced, almost overwhelmingly so. Lemony pears and some waxiness, bit of aloe-vera, soapy character. Resin. Creamy texture and firm acidity – very serious and with eyes set firmly on the long distance. No time for frivolity. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc. RS 2.2 g/l, pH 3.39, TA 6.4 g/l. Some new oak.
Gunflint and cordite with the strong impression of top-class oak on nose and palate. Fresh and nutty layers of cut apple, chervil and toasted sesame seeds. Fantastic acidity and structure, precision made, with crystalline fruit held tightly back for now. The oak is very well hidden in this sinewy, vibrant wine, but it needs a bit more time (save to the end of 2017), and I'd decant and serve it a tad warmer than this sample. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc. RS 2.4 g/l, pH 3.4, TA 5 g/l.
Lovely, layered, lemon-sherbet nose dusted with crushed wild flower, and then a fatter, sweet undercurrent of fudge. Long and waxy and interesting, a tapestry of fresh-cut hay, golden currants and chamomile. Sweet pears dancing through tension in the weave. Very, very good. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc. RS 2.7 g/l, pH 3.36, TA 5.5 g/l.
Bit sweaty smelling, and showing Siberian reserve both on the nose and on the palate. At the moment, somewhat uncomfortable and ill-tempered, like chewing on leaves and raw wood. There's a glimmer of pear and some very racy citrus character. This is a wine that will need a bit of time to limber up. NB A very, very cold sample that I suspect, thanks to an innate leanness as well as being embryonically tight, suffered from the arctic serving temperature.(TC)

A jointly made wine, by one of Erica Platter's Zim Somms, Joseph Dhafana, and Herman Redelinghuys of Antebellum. Dry-farmed bushvines. Spontaneous fermentation, eight months in second- and third-fill French oak followed by three months in tank.
Very fragrant – lemon thyme and nose-filling tangerine-peel aromas. Minty on the first mouthful, then delicately sweet-fruited, creamy palate. White peaches edged with citrus zest. Elegant purity, finishing on a high note of fennel. So much flavour for just 12.5%. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc. RS 4.5 g/l, pH 3.31, TA 5.9 g/l.
Nutty. Also fresh quince, a vertical intensity that draws you in. Orange blossom, crème brûlée, a wonderful unfurling spread of flavours, that keeps opening and unrolling across the tongue. Saltiness. Seville oranges. Incredible energy and verve and pep – it kind of wakes you up. Almost peppery spice. Fabulous. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc. RS 4.9 g/l, pH 3.45. From seven parcels of Chenin aged 25 to 46 years on quite complex soils. Barrel fermentation.
Cool pineapple and pine dust on the nose. Dried resin. A resounding sweep of pure fruit in a broad sweep across the palate, followed by a wash of acidity. Mandarin and cumin. Amazing structure. Fine-boned yet not delicate – there's a thoroughbred confidence and toss of the mane. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc from three vineyards, 35- to 46-year-old vines, on three different types of soil (decomposed granite, rich clay, and duplex). 24 hours of skin contact and free-run juice only. RS 6.9 g/l, pH 3.33.
Spicy fynbos perfume with a sweeter, deeper undertow of brûléed pineapple. Wonderful peppery, rock-dust aromatics! Baritone richness, soaked in orange, almost liqueur-like. Steeped in herbs. Allspice. A long, steely, salty core of mineral intensity. So dense and concentrated and powerful. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc. RS 2.5 g/l, pH 3.43, TA 6.3 g/l. 
Hint of nuts and citrus peel on the nose, honeyed. Lovely balance on the palate with a freshness that gets richer towards the middle, honey-cream and sage with just a touch of tropical fruit. Very inviting. (TC)

91% Chenin Blanc, 9% Verdelho. RS 1.9 g/l, pH 3.33, TA 6.1 g/l.
Quiet lanolin, floral aromas. Fabulous, soaring acidity – tightrope balance. Jalapeño and coriander give green and bite, apple brings sweetness and crunch, and on the finish a trail of cedary spice. (TC)

RS 147 g/l, pH 3.47, TA 9.3 g/l. 100% Chenin Blanc. 100% botrytis; they always get it in this vineyard but especially in 2014 as it was such a wet year.
Gorgeous nose!!!! Honeycomb and tangerine segments in syrup and apricots and you just want to sink into the loveliness of the smell. Sweet but with such a great wash of orange that you keep coming back for more. Just delicious. Cape-gooseberry jam. Beautiful balance. (TC)

Whole-bunch pressed (in a champagne press), 10 months in old oak (fourth/fifth-use barriques), natural yeast. Vines grown from sélection massale and on a richer shale soil than Blocks A and W.
Roasted peaches, syrup on toast. Gorgeous satiny texture and shimmering flavours that fall chiffon soft. Luscious fruit, dried tea leaves and warm spice. Layered and very long. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc. RS 2.9 g/l, pH 3.19, TA 6.2 g/l.
Full-on intensity that keeps you coming back to draw in deep breaths of apricot conserve and cobbler's glue and honeyed citrus. An audaciously dramatic wine that grips the attention. Marmalade edge without sweetness. Lots of oaky, toffeed spice on quince and orange citrus. Opulent style of Chenin, but well-judged. (TC)

Whole-bunch pressed (in a champagne press), 10 months in old oak (fourth/fifth-use barriques), natural yeast. Of the three single-vineyard wines, this block is the earliest to harvest. It's on decomposed granite, just 4 km from the ocean.
The most interesting nose of the three 2015 Single Vineyard bottlings, and certainly the richest. Unlike the other two, however, this has a seam of dusty rocky minerality and an intriguing curry spice that lingers on the tongue. Mimosa blossom and a leesy Greek-yogurt creaminess fill the mid palate tightening into a glittering citrus finish. (TC)

This block is the Montpellier clone. Whole-bunch pressed (in a champagne press), 10 months in old oak (fourth/fifth-use barriques), natural yeast.
Wild flowers, meadow-grass fragrance. The smell of late summer. Kumquat intensity with a whiff of woodsmoke. Ripe apricot succulence on the mid palate and a persistent and elegantly dry finish. Fresh and mouth-watering. Good now with lots of potential. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc. RS 2.3 g/l, pH 3.37, TA 6.1 g/l. 75% stainless steel, 25% French oak (of which 50% is new). Inoculated yeast. 
Full-fruited, clean, clear flavours with a bit of wild flower, bay leaf and nectar sweetness. Elegant Chenin with a good firm finish. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc. RS 2.3 g/l, pH 3.55, TA 5.2 g/l. 
Very pretty nose, cascading flavours of oranges steeped in redbush tea, warm spice, citrus zest, ripe Williams pears and sultanas. Rather long, reverberating and gorgeous on the palate. So much there: burnt orange and blood orange and baked pears and apricots and pastry and cardamom. Bold. Sophisticated. Intensely refreshing, yet rich and brocaded and shimmering. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc. RS 2.7 g/l, pH 3.42, TA 6.3 g/l. 
Stony silence on the nose, and one smoking match. With a little bit of time, reluctant aromas of fynbos lift a little. Very structured. Angular and powerful and a wine that seems to be chiselled out of lime-soused stones. Dusty, herbal and demanding. Glimmers of creamy fruit folded up for the future. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc. RS 2.8 g/l, pH 3.2, TA 6.5 g/l. 
Rounded, lanolin-suffused aromatics. A lovely nose, but stunningly explosive on the palate. A Catherine Wheel of orange peel and spice and tangerines. Spins and glistens, flavour gaining amplitude on the long finish. Vertical and horizontal. So good. And so long. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc. RS 4.1 g/l, pH 3.25, TA 6.3 g/l. 
Smoky honey and lime and apricots – almost Riesling-like. Exquisite fruit, apricot and honey spun through cumin and rye bread and dusty spice. A beautiful mineral shaft running from start to finish, and coruscating acidity, like diamonds cutting light. Huge structure and bountiful fruit. Unspittable. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc, from bushvines planted in 1966. They made just one barrel in this vintage, but from next year they will use the whole vineyard for this wine. 
Glorious aromas, oranges, cloves, smoke and juniper. Wonderfully complete and sinuous, salty and intense, quince and blood orange and grapefruit. Layers and layers with fireworks of flavour crackling and exploding in the mouth. Insists. An incredibly beautiful wine. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc, old bushvines. The first vintage of this wine.
Closed and smoky and tightly stiffly woven – like the finest of starched linen. Racy and elegant, high-wired with razor-sharp citrus, but all the fruit and flesh very much waiting in the wings. Very Loire-like. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc. RS 2 g/l, pH 3.58, TA 4.6 g/l.
Nose warms up and opens like a flower. Baked pear and softly sifted spice. Waxy apples, curved with a sharp outline of acidity. Pulls across the palate with real strength yet not hot or heavy. Wash of acidity, the crunchy chew of celery. Fresh and full. (TC) 

100% Chenin Blanc. RS 4.53 g/l, pH 3.33, TA 6.17 g/l. 
Rich, pure aromas of apricot and peach. Lightly spiced on a generous creamy spread of fruit across the palate. Sharpness of only-just-unripe greengage adding spike. Long and firm and has great persistent presence and texture. Delicious and very drinkable. Food wine. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc. RS 3.4 g/l, pH 3.3, TA 6.8 g/l. 32- to 41-year-old bushvines. Wild yeast in tanks and barrel, which they blend together after four months. 16% old French oak barrels. 
Brilliantly bright acidity. Crystal-clear fruit and transparency. Vivacious and zesty. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc. RS 3.9 g/l, pH 3.08, TA 7.8 g/l. Vines from one of the oldest Chenin vineyards in SA, planted in 1964. On decomposed granite, dry-farmed. They allow skin contact for oxidation. There was a tiny bit of botrytis in the vineyard (the last three rows by the river) in 2015 which they made into sweet wine and blended back in. Wild yeast fermentation which takes six to seven months to complete. Left in barrel for nine months, 12% new wood with a very tight grain.
Super-vibrant. Vibrating right out of the glass! Crackling and tap-dancing with energy and Seville orange marmalade flavours. Exquisite definition, layers of spice, a waxiness on the finish pulling all that zest into a long smooth finish. Beautiful purity and distinction and nervosité. Exciting stuff. (TC)

100% Chenin Blanc. RS 3.5 g/l, pH 3.6, TA 5.8 g/l. Bit of botrytis – a better year for Chenin than 2014.
Aloe sap, lightly smoky/reduced. Faint note of green apple. Dry, lean, refined, savoury Chenin with a base note of toasted sunflower and sesame seeds. Bones of minerality, flesh of fennel, sinews of tarragon. (TC)

A cooler vintage than 2015. Bottled July, released in October.
Very young, cool-fermentation aromas. Lime bonbon. It has the same herbal, fennel, lean profile as the 2015 but with cut-glass edges, higher acidity – a little more high-wired. I wouldn't drink it until late 2017. (TC)

93% Chenin Blanc, 7% Viognier. RS 4.3 g/l, pH 3.48, TA 6.4 g/l.
Not very expressive on the nose. Bit of lime. But very sherbet-bright on the palate – lime and rocks and minty fresh. Invigorating! Lively. (TC)

70% Chenin Blanc, 20% Chardonnay, 10% Viognier. RS 3.3 g/l, pH 3.51, TA 5.8 g/l. 
Very pretty nose of pâtisserie and pear skin. Cardamom spice scattered over a middle of peaches and cream. It's a very nice Chenin Blanc indeed, just without the Badenhorst edge and soul, as if made for a market. (TC)

40% Chenin Blanc, 30% Sauvignon Blanc, 10% Sémillon, 10% Chardonnay, 10% Colombard. New Baby is, for the moment, a working title. The cuvée hasn't been named, although he suspects that New Baby might just stick. Natural fermentation in barrel, then he blends and puts it back in barrel.
White apples, stone fruit, cardamom. Classy oak, beautifully integrated. Just curves into the wine. Intense, concentrated, density of flavour with thrilling acidity. The blend comes together with almost symphonic flair. (TC)

40% Chenin Blanc (two blocks), 17% Clairette Blanche, 13% Viognier, 13% Pinot Gris, 9% Verdelho. RS 4.2 g/l, pH 3.5, TA 5.33 g/l. The high-wired Pieter Walser, owner and winemaker of BLANKbottle, tells me the story behind this blend and its name: A friend of his is a neurologist, and they decided to do an experiment. Over a period of weeks, for several sessions, Pieter was wired up to an EE machine while he tasted 21 components of a potential blend. The neurologist measured his response to each component and eventually the components that elicited his most favourable unconscious responses were compiled to make the Limbic blend (the limbic system in the brain houses our emotional responses to life).
Almost fino-like on the nose – smells like sea air and salt-crusted fynbos and dried apple skins. Intense and wild and off-beat – a wine that reminds me of the lonely, haunting sound of a single saxophone played on a street corner at night. Electric tension, and the sweet wild-fruit taste of ripe amarulas with the late-summer spice of bush grass. A distinctive, edgy wine that will divide the room. Bravo! (TC)

34% Grenache Blanc, 17% Ferñao Pires, 17% Chenin Blanc, 13% Verdelho, 11% Clairette Blanche, 8% Sémillon. RS 3.91 g/l, pH 3.5, TA 5.04 g/l. This is the 'conscious blend', hence its name – chosen, in direct contrast to Limbic, by sitting down and making an intellectual choice about which components should go into the blend.
Perhaps it's the power of suggestion (seeing as brains and the subconscious are particularly topical right here) but this wine seems to me to be 'tamer' than the Limbic. Fruit on the nose, rather than the sea salt and garrigue of the Limbic. Gooseberry and guava, with a touch of caramel and sage. Rich and complex, just as interesting, but much less divisive. More orchestra in the Royal Albert than saxophonist on a street corner. Glorious without the grit. (TC)

95% Chenin Blanc, 5% Grenache Blanc. RS 2.9 g/l, pH 3.54, TA 5.4 g/l. Made by Donovan Rall (for Boutinot) from 70-year-old bush vines on a single rocky slope that is also home to the Grenache block and grows cheek-by-jowl with the region's indigenous rooibos tea plants. Naturally fermented in very old wooden barrels and steel, portions of which take up to 10 months to complete. Finally, the wine is gently racked and bottled – only 4,000 bottles in total.
Baked-butternut sweetness and spice that folds into pâtisserie and then, on the palate, into a broad, generously rounded cashew cream. Vibrantly zesty spine, a pineapple zing providing crisp definition under a soft veil of spice. None of these descriptions does this wine any justice – it's beautifully crafted, seductively moreish and a textbook example of glorious South African Chenin. (TC)

43% Chenin Blanc, 31% Viognier, 17% Grenache Blanc, 9% Roussanne. 
Green jelly-bean nose. Lime and fruity and bright. But pretty simple. At £8 a bottle, I'd be happy; at £18.99, I'd feel somewhat cheated. (TC)

56% Chenin Blanc, 17% Viognier, 14% Sauvignon Blanc, 13% Chardonnay. RS 1.98 g/l, pH 3.36, TA 5.89 g/l.
Refined and correct. Impeccably turned out, a kind of liquid Saville Row suit, lovely peach and greengage fruit stitched together with the finest of cedary spice. Nothing out of place. (TC)

65% Chenin Blanc, 17% Sauvignon Blanc, 13% Chardonnay, 5% Viognier. RS 2.6 g/l, pH 3.48, TA 4.8 g/l.
An edge on the nose, passion fruit and peaches with a herbal drift. Lovely vigour and depth of flavour. Refined and classy and well-mannered. (TC)

87% Chenin Blanc, 13% Sémillon. RS 2 g/l, pH 3.43, TA 5.7 g/l. 
Rounded and savoury on nose and palate. Spiced pears and sultana bread. Attractive and balanced. (TC)

65% Chenin Blanc, 17% Viognier, 9% Clairette Blanche, 9% Verdelho. RS 1.8 g/l, pH 3.27, TA 5.8 g/l.
The smell of freshly made churros laced with orange zest. Oak still guarding the gateway but this has astonishing intensity and power and grip. All still to play here. White grapefruit and freshly baked, yeasty, warm bread interlaced with sultanas and dried pear and chamomile tea. Densely woven, with shimmering tension across the weft. A rich, substantial finish. Not for the faint-hearted. Chenin for roast suckling pig. A good Christmas-table wine. (TC)

35% Chenin Blanc, 23% Roussanne, 19% Viognier, 15% Clairette Blanche, 8% Sémillon. RS 2.2 g/l, pH 3.59, TA 4.5 g/l. 
Cool and pure on the nose, meadow scented. Spicy. Complete and soaring with energy. Apple skin and candied citrus peel and a compact density of flavour that reverberates in the mouth. Great depth. (TC)

82% Chenin Blanc, 11% Viognier, 7% Roussanne. RS 1.72 g/l, pH 3.62, TA 4.54 g/l.
That bonfire-night smell of fireworks and cordite and wintery leaves. Smoky fennel cream on the palate, softly curving into cardamom and sweet pears. Graceful acidity that strides on long legs, effortlessly. Couture with a bit of wild. Delicious. (TC)

74% Chenin Blanc, 23% Viognier, 3% Roussanne. RS 3.1 g/l, pH 3.43, TA 5.3 g/l. Blended, barrel-fermented, natural yeast. Very poor soils. They are the only winery within 100 km, about three hours' drive from Cape Town.
Very fetching lemon-bread nose. Hint of natural soap and green tea and tangy sage. Lovely life and distinctive – pithy, full yet with sharply drawn lines of acidity. Wonderful tang and bite, an almost jalapeño liveliness. Fantastic stuff. Eucalpytus? Mint dust, mineral dust, sand and rock dust. Fabulous complexity. Very very good. (TC)

33% Roussanne, 23% Sémillon, 20% Chardonnay, 18% Chenin Blanc, 6% Clairette Blanche. RS 2.1 g/l, pH 3.4, TA 5.5 g/l..
Nutty and acacia blossom. Crumpled-tissue-paper-fine texture. Pears and white peach but not much fruit sweetness. A delicate skein of wild-grass spiciness and fennel tea leaf with an underbelly of vanilla cream. Neat finish. (TC) 

39% Chenin Blanc, 26% Viognier, 10% Verdelho, 9% Grenache Blanc, 7% Roussanne [the percentage breakdown of varieties in the blend given by WOSA didn't quite add up to 100%, and the website doesn't have information on the 2014 vintage, but it looks like the remaining 9% could be either Clairette Blanche or Sémillon, or both, or something else entirely!]. RS 2.8 g/l, pH 3.4. Made by Donovan Rall.
Cool river-pebbles smell. Spine and steely core and yet with this extraordinarily delicate white-peach freshness and softness. Long and lovely, the finish wrapped in a cobweb of gunsmoke. Donovan Rall is a magician when it comes to white wine. (TC)

65% Sauvignon Blanc, 30% Chenin Blanc, 5% Sémillon. RS 4.6 g/l, pH 3.35, TA 6.1 g/l. 80% co-fermented. Made in demi-muids and on lees for 13 months.
Pineapple and peppery, and salsa dancing from nose to palate. Electric-bright expression of tropical fruit in a framework of salty agave and green pepper. Generous and friendly. (TC)

45% Chenin Blanc, 15% Chardonnay, 14% Muscat de Frontignan, 14% Sémillon, 12% Clairette Blanche. RS 2.9 g/l, pH 3.3, TA 6.3 g/l.
Delicate aroma of cobnuts leading into nutty almond-paste flavours on the palate with a bit of chervil. Tiny bit of Muscat grapiness and ginger. (TC)

Although on the label this is a non-varietal, non-vintage wine, it is 100% Sauvignon Blanc, aged under flor in vin jaune style. The vineyard is close to the sea, 150 km from the Badenhorst home vineyards in Malmesbury. The grapes were picked five weeks later than their home vineyards, and the flor happened 'through sheer luck – I don't know how these things happen!'
Off-the-wall wine, in true Adi Badenhorst style. Smells just like Floradix vitamin tonic! Iodine and seaweed and salty sea air – headily aromatic. And then intensely savoury on the palate with a side salad of crunchy green apple and cobnuts. Nothing like Sauvignon Blanc, and even as a vin jaune, it's in a class of its own. Quite extraordinary. Delicious. A Victorian health-and-vitality tonic. Sold in half bottles. Get your hands on one! (TC)

100% Sémillon. RS 3.6 g/l, pH 3.17, TA 6.6 g/l. Her first vintage of Sémillon.
Extraordinary nose! A Catherine Wheel of aromas: gorse bush and lemon cake, Cape gooseberry and lemon dust, thyme crushed underfoot in the early morning cool of the garden. Crisp and salty in the mouth, medicinal sweetness of liquorice root, and the freshness of mint. So vital. Sandalwood and cedar spice on the finish, but without being oaky. Quite an intellectual wine, and a real sommelier wine. (TC)

90% Sémillon, 10% Sauvignon Blanc. The story, according to their website, is this: 'Rick simply knocked on the door of his old mate Andre van Rensberg, in order to recreate the original blend elsewhere. As it happened, the World’s Greatest Winemaker was just about to blend away a tank of Semillon; off-cuts from his renowned ‘Reserve’ and ‘GVB’ wines so, with a splash of his top Schaarpenberg Sauvignon Blanc 2016 to help it along its way, the assemblage was done and the deal signed off with a handshake. Easy.'
For just 10%, the Sauvignon Blanc is remarkably pronounced. Very green and pungent and structured, but there is diamond-cut depth to the flavour, intensity and grip. (TC)

100% Sémillon. RS 1.9 g/l, pH 3.36, TA 5.6 g/l. 112-year-old bushvines that are 'doing their own things'. 5-ha vineyard, low yield, dry-farmed.
Bay-leaf cream. Dill. Roasted pears and thyme. Wonderfully interesting, intriguing aromas and very very fine on the palate. Herbal and sour-dough bread, a savoury, tight, complex weave of chervil and ground coriander and hemp seed. Pencil lines of flavour, quiet poise, beautifully elegant tension. (TC)

Biodynamic. The two single vineyard blocks are 4 km apart at about 300 m altitude, sandstone soils, 18-year-old vines. Yields 3 tons/ha. 2015 was picked two weeks early due to a very early spring. Natural wild-yeast fermentation in old 600-litre barrels. Very slow fermentation process of six months plus three months on the primary lees. Not cold- or protein-stabilised and only a coarse filtration was allowed before bottling.
Dusty wet stone, cool box-leaf aromas. A plane of flavour, like polished granite, cut to greengage and lime. Very slightly minty, and then broad and powerful across the shoulders. Refined with a brushed-steel gleam. Pulls long and linear to the finish. Very atypical South African Sauvignon Blanc. (TC)