In early 1997, Andrew Gunn, an engineer by training was contemplating his next career move. A lover of the outdoors, the prospect of farming appealed to him and he was undaunted by starting a second career. After months of searching and 40 farm visits later, Andrew stumbled upon a solitary run down apple farm on a mountain top in Elgin overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. 

Iona’s farm, named “Geelbeksvlei”, is one of the coolest vineyards in the Cape, 420m above sea-level, high above the picturesque Elgin Valley. Iona is surrounded by the Kogelberg Nature Reserve and overlooks the Atlantic Ocean in the South. In a country where cool sites are precious, these vineyards are highly valued — the grapes ripening up to two months later than most other Cape vineyards. 

The philosophy at Iona is simply to make wine that expresses the soils and climate as closely as possible, making use of sustainable farming methods and to maximise the use of natural products in farming and winemaking. 

Iona’s talented winemaker Werner Muller recently popped in to show me his new vintage releases from Elgin. One wine in particular caught my eye…

Iona Sauvignon Blanc 2016, Elgin

This is yet another very impressive 2016 white from the drought vintage. But as winemaker Werner pointed out, the 3 farms than now make up Iona, thrive in the hot, dry vintages due to their cool proximity to the sea. This Sauvignon Blanc has 4% Semillon that was barrel fermented. The wine is rich and opulent with lifted aromatics of yellow stone fruits, pineapple pastille sweets, yellow citrus and just a subtle, quincy hint of oak. The palate is textural and broad but also wonderfully fresh and vibrant with a lovely sweet/sour acidity, crystalline yellow grapefruit, a wet straw grassiness and a long concentrated finish of green melon, ripe papaya skins and freshly cut pineapple. A very attractive wine from this quality focused winery. 

(Wine Safari Score: 93+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)