As we await the new 2022 releases from Lukas Van Loggerenberg, I thought I would revisit three wines that I tried with him in the UK a few months ago. While his Kameraderie Chenin Blanc drew all the early market attention in the first few vintages, Lukas’s Trust Your Gut Chenin Blanc has now found its own comfortable quality niche and following among old vine Chenin Blanc lovers making this wine a real steal within the range.

But if it’s Rosé wine you are looking for, the 6th vintage of Break a Leg Cinsault will charm you with its subtle reductive flintiness, hints of dried herbs, fynbos and stony minerality. Certainly one of the more serious Rosé expressions produced in the South African market. But if very fine reds, and Northern Rhône style Syrah is your preference, the Graft Syrah is simply drop dead gorgeous and well worth the effort to track down a bottle. Alternatively, get in quick when the 2022s are released in the coming months. Lukas remains one of the most exciting winemakers plying his trade in the Cape at the moment.

Lukas Van Loggerenberg Break a Leg Cinsault Rosé 2021, WO Stellenbosch 12% Abv.

The sixth vintage of this sophisticated Rosé but the first use of this 29-year-old Helderberg located vineyard planted on soft, sandy decomposed granite just above the Craven Cinsault vineyard owned by Pieter Bredell. Several pickings make up the final wine which is fermented in old oak which removes the New World tooty fruity Rosé character to expose the more grown-up serious side of the wine a la Provençal Rosé wines. The nose if loaded with aromatics of wet granite, sun dried strawberries, oyster shells and pithy red cherry with a saline, dusty dried herb sapidity. Cool, textured and quite glycerol in the mouth, this wine has lovely intensity and a fine precision, finishing with purity and a dry minerality. Another fabulous gastronomic Rosé wine.

(Wine Safari Score: 92+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Lukas Van Loggerenberg Trust Your Gut Chenin Blanc 2021, WO Western Cape, 13% Abv.

About 60% of the grapes for this superb wine were sourced from the Paardeberg and 40% from the Polkadraai Hills ward in Stellenbosch. The aromatics display a notable crushed gravel minerality with hints of struck-match reduction before notes of pineapple, ripe pears, white peach, wet straw and dried herb nuances. As always, the palate is beautifully intense and concentrated possessing impressive phenolic structure together with a bright vibrant acidity. It is striking how Lukas harnesses such power, intensity and depth of flavour at a modest 13% alcohol, reaffirming his real mastery of the Chenin Blanc grape. Drink this on release or cellar for 8 to 10+ years.

(Wine Safari Score: 96/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Lukas Van Loggerenberg Graft Syrah 2021, WO Stellenbosch, 13.5% Abv.

Made from higher altitude grapes sourced in the Karibib vineyard, this 2021 is an incredibly special Syrah creation with complex perfumed aromatics of violets, lilies, sweet red cherries, crushed raspberries over spicy black pepper, dried herbs, fynbos and savoury black berries. This is a spellbinding wine with overt precision, translucent purity of fruit, fabulous focus and seamless tannins. A really classy, chiselled wine displaying effortless balance and power. Very, very impressive indeed.

(Wine Safari Score: 98/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

The Lukas Van Loggerenberg wines are available to the UK trade from importer Dreyfus Ashby or to retail customers from specialist South African merchant Museum Wines. http://www.museumwines.co.uk