Celebrating World Chenin Blanc Day Tasting Two of the Most Incredible Expressions Produced – Sadie Family Rotsbank 2022 vs Alheit Vineyards Gone South 2022…

June 11, 2024June 12, 2024 ~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ 2 Comments

After world Drink Chenin Blanc Day on the 8th of June, it’s important to sit back and reflect on just how far the South African wine industry has come in the past two decades with regards to producing quality Chenin Blanc from unique terroir sites, using incredible old vine vineyard fruit. Some of the expressions being produced in South Africa now by producers like Sadie Family Wines, Alheit Vineyards and others, represent the pinnacle of what is possible quality wise with this cultivar, that was once regarded as a simple work horse variety only worthy of high yields for the purposes of distillation, or at a stretch, bulk white wine production.

So, what better way to celebrate this truly unique cultivar than by tasting two wines from 2022 that have recently captured the imagination and interest of fine wine buyers and collectors the world over. Firstly, the Rotsbank Chenin Blanc 2022 that represents the maiden release under the Sadie Family Wines label of this Swartland vineyard.

Eben walking the Rotsbank vineyard thick with cover crops.

The Rotsbank vineyard is located in the Paardeberg in the Aprilskloof on a rock shelf just behind the back entrance of the Sadie Family farm that barely has 30 – 50 cm of soil in most parts. It is incredible to think that this vineyard survives year after year. Many of the roots in the soil have found cracks in this rock shelf, and the limited natural growth of this vineyard makes for incredibly concentrated fruit. Since 2008 Eben Sadie has wanted to produce a pure Swartland Chenin Blanc, but the 2022 vintage materialised as the first after he was very fortunate enough to get the opportunity to purchase the vineyard.

The Rotsbank Chenin Blanc vineyard in the Paardeberg, Swartland.

After harvesting, the Rotsbank Chenin Blanc grapes are placed in a cooling room to reduce the temperature since the average temperatures at harvest are often 35 degrees C or more – pressing warm grapes comes with a series of problems. They then do whole bunch pressing, a process that takes about 3 hours, during which time there is a margin of settling of the juice in the collecting tank. The juice is then transferred to two old foudres for fermentation. The wine is left in a cask on the fermentation lees for the first 12 months and is bottled directly from the fine lees. Only about 60ppm of sulphur is added two weeks before bottling.

The second wine tasted comes from the other great white wine maestro, Chris Alheit, who has over the past decade and a half, established himself as one of the most sought after premium white wine producers in South Africa. Magnetic North is also, like the Rotsbank, a single origin Chenin Blanc wine. Since its maiden vintage in 2013, this wine has become a perennial star in the Alheit line-up with an almost mythical reputation. Every vintage the wines manages to combine power and finesse in a way very few other Chenin Blanc vineyards from anywhere (not just the Cape) are able to do. So when Chris Alheit decided to “declassify” the Magnetic North for the 2022 vintage on account of it not having the requisite power and structure expected of a Magnetic North Chenin Blanc, a lot of eyebrows were raised.

But did the Magnetic North 2022 merit declassification? The grapes come from two ungrafted Skurfberg vineyards which Chris Alheit felt weren’t quite up to standard in 2022 and subsequently decided to release the wine as “Gone South” selling for almost half the price of a bottle of Magnetic North. For many, like Christian Eedes, the editor of Winemag.co.za in South Africa, it was considered Chris was perhaps being a little too overcautious, and a mega score of 98/100 was bestowed on the declassified Gone South 2022 regardless. So, what better two wines to examine in minute detail and put through their paces in a head-to-head, sighted, taste-off!?

Alheit Vineyards Gone South Chenin Blanc 2022, WO Citrusdal Mountain, 13% Abv.

A profound expression of Chenin Blanc that boasts complex aromatics of dried herbs, fresh hay, fynbos, crushed gravel, grated lemon peel and pithy yellow orchard stone fruits. A beautifully elegant harmonious creation with delicacy and finesse, incredible balance and harmony, and an impressive concentration of white peach, honied pear, and a beguiling liquid minerality with a classical saline maritime kiss on the finish. A very fine wine that is so deliciously mouthwatering and drinkable now. Outstanding.

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

Sadie Family Wines Old Vine Series Rotsbank Chenin Blanc 2022, WO Swartland, 13% Abv.

A thoroughly compelling offering from Eben that justifies his passion to make this his first single varietal Swartland Chenin Blanc in his range. Showing a hint of flinty reduction, the stony mineral characters give way to notes of wet hay, wet wool, quince puree, peach and honey, and the typical savoury bruised yellow orchard fruit character so common in Swartland. The massive concentration suggests a higher RS than the 1.5g/l level but obviously it’s simply the incredible dry extract that highlights the wines intensity, power and persistence. A flirty, opulent offering of old vine Chenin Blanc that has found a perfect home in Eben’s famous old vine series collection… the first new addition in 13 years. Bravo Eben!

(Wine Safari Score: 97+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

The Alheit Vineyards Gone South was only released cellar door to the local South African market for circa £20pb (R495) but the other Alheit wines are available in the UK on allocation from Dreyfus Ashby. The Sadie Family Wines are available on allocation from FMV, the wholesale trade arm of Berry Brothers & Rudd for circa £50pb.

Another Two Exceptional Alheit Vineyards Wines Released – Tasting the Cartology and Hereafer Here Chenin Blanc 2022s…

February 22, 2024March 9, 2024 ~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

Since the maiden vintage of the Alheit’s Cartology white blend in 2011, the Alheit’s philosophy of old vines and special pockets of Cape terroir has seen them produce ever more critically acclaimed wines from all around the Cape. With the 2022 vintage of the Hereafter Here 100% Chenin Blanc from notable parcels in the Swartland, Upper Blaauwklippen, Polkadraai, and Paardeberg, and the Cartology 92% Chenin Blanc, 8% Sémillon blend from old vine Chenin vineyards from the Skurfberg, Malmesbury, Perdeberg, Bottelary, Upper Blaauwklippen, False Bay, Tygerberg, and the third oldest Sémillon block in South Africa, La Colline in Franschhoek, planted in 1936 (two older blocks being planted 1902 at Eikehof and 1905 at Landau du Val).

These two wines offer up some of the most critically acclaimed South African white wines from arguably one of the most celebrated South African winemakers after Eben Sadie (though Chris and Suzanne Alheit only trail him by a few years age wise). They have since made their home on the farm, Hemelrand (Heaven’s Edge) on the Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge and have mentored some of SA’s top winemaking talent in the form of Franco Lourens, previously assistant winemaker and now full-time winemaker and owner of Lourens Family Wines.

While collectors and connoisseurs have long since chased allocations of Chris’s top single site Chenin Blanc wines like Magnetic North and Huilkrans, the heightened quality, focus and precision on the Cartology vineyard blend specifically has been notable in recent years. Both the Cartology and Hereafter Here cuvees are now almost as tightly allocated as the single vineyard cuvees, so drinkers and collectors should definitely not overlook these wines when buying benchmark Chenin Blanc whites from South Africa.

Alheit Vineyards Hereafter Here Chenin Blanc 2022, WO Western Cape, 13% Abv.

Made from a mixture of young and older vines aged between 5 and 40 years old, after 18 months of elevage with 66% aged on its fine lees, the complex aromatics reveal a rich leesy, savoury yellow fruited nose with pithy white citrus, peach stone, bitter almonds, dried herbs, orange blossom and hints of lemon oil. Rich but not too overtly “fruity”, the palate is plush, harmonious and textural with hints of honeydew melon, lemon pastille, white peach and savoury leesy biscuit hints. Really quite serious, and seriously delicious! Drink now and over the next 8 to 10 years.

(Wine Safari Score: 94/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Alheit Vineyards Cartology 2022, WO Western Cape, 13% Abv.

This flagship blend from Chris Alheit is made from 92% Chenin Blanc and 8% Semillon grapes sourced from eight disparate old vine vineyards of between 40 and 60 years old. The youthful aromatics display a melange of granitic minerality over notes of peach, tangerine, orange oil and wet hay nuances. The 2022 is beautifully cool, harmonious and overtly mineral-led with dusty dried herbs, white peach, green pear and yellow stone fruits. The acids are gentle, soft spoken but deliciously tangy and the finish creamy, leesy and delightfully mouth-coating with and impressively persistent length. Yet another superb Cartology release from Chris ‘Butch’ Alheit. Drink now and over the next 10 to 12+ years.

(Wine Safari Score: 95+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

The Cartology 2022 is priced at circa £34.99 and the Hereafter Here 2022 at £26.99 inc. Both wines are available from specialist South African merchant Museum Wines.

Alheit Vineyards Huilkrans Old Vine Chenin Blanc 2022 Shows All the Markings of a Legendary Wine in the Making…

December 3, 2023December 3, 2023 ~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

In the fine wine world, it is certainly very rare for any new producer to achieve cult status almost immediately, but Chris and Suzaan Alheit’s first vintage of Cartology in 2011 brought them unexpected fame almost over night after Neal Martin bestowed this now legendary wine with a 96/100 point score. Ever since this maiden release, Alheit Vineyards has continued to become one of the most tightly allocated and highly sought-after South African wine names on the international market.

Situated 5 hours drive from their own cellar in the Hemel-en-Aarde, the dry farmed old bushvines growing on red sand over red clay produce wines marked by bristling acidity and clarity of flavour, earthy minerality and natural power. “Every vintage reaffirms the extraordinary properties of this landscape,” says Chris Alheit. The Skurfberg vineyard area is now cemented as one of the Cape’s most extraordinary winegrowing areas and Chris works with two farms here: The ungrafted Chenin Blanc bushvines growing at 540 metres above sea-level on Arbeidseind farm producing the wine called Magnetic North. The Oudam farm is close by, a little lower down at 450 metres above sea-level, and produces Huilkrans. Both farms also contribute Chenin Blanc grapes to Alheit’s Cartology white blend.

Alheit Vineyards Huilkrans Old Vine Chenin Blanc 2022, WO Citrusdal Mountain, Olifants Rivier, 13% Abv.

Made from 35 to 55 year old vines planted on deep orange sand over gravel and clay yields a profound expression of Chenin Blanc displaying complex notes of wet slate minerality, salted nectarines, white peach, dried herbs, fresh hay and smoky fynbos hints. This is a very serious white wine with an imposing presence, where the glycerol palate whispers sublime class. The palate depth and breadth is simply astounding, reassuringly rich and tangy with all the freshness and tension you’d expect with a beguiling intensity and length of pear purée and Poire William nuances. Tantalisingly austere and saline with fruit reserve, a mineral focus with a spicy, wet river pebble liquid minerality, the texture is dream-like, silky, sultry, and elegantly persistent. A Grand Cru wine in every sense of the word! A real stunner. Drink from release and over the next 20+ years.

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

The Alheit Vineyard wines are imported into the UK by merchant Dreyfus Ashby, where the wines are available on strict allocations to trade.

The Highly Sought After New Alheit Vineyards 2021 Wine Releases Tasted and Reviewed…

December 24, 2022December 24, 2022 ~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

In September, Chris “Butch” Alheit returned to the United Kingdom to present his new 2021 vintages at his importer’s portfolio tasting. With over 120+ wines from South Africa being poured, most with their producers in attendance, I decided to write up a series of “snap-shot” tastings for drinkers and collectors to use as a quick and easily accessible reference for a whole series of new releases. I fortuitously had another opportunity only a few weeks later to retaste the entire Alheit range again with Chris in Cape Town at the Cape Wine 2022 wine show in October. So my below scores are an aggregate of the two tastings.

Chris explained that in general, his vineyards ripened around 10 days later in 2021 than the previous year, with low yields but very high quality across the board. In 2021, no Huilkrans Chenin Blanc was made as the crop from this Skurfberg “lieu dit” vineyard was simply too small. Then there was the Magnetic North catastrophy which saw the entire tank of Chenin Blanc from this famous vineyard ruined by a faulty tank gasket seal that imparted an unpleasant bitterness to the wine. As if Alheit demand and supply is not strained enough in a regular vintage, 2021 with its exceptional white wine quality will create even more severe headaches for collectors and drinkers looking for allocations of these incredible wines. But I recommend you persevere as the wines are once again truly outstanding.

Alheit Vineyards Hereafter Here 2021, WO Western Cape, 13% Abv.

Made from young vine Chenin Blanc vineyards from Upper Blaauwklippen, Polkadraai and the Swartland, the idea is that some of these grapes will eventually be channelled into Cartology in years to come as the vines age. Deliciously cool, silky and taut with green fruits, white flowers, white citrus, green apple and crunchy peach nuances. Acids are mouth-wateringly tangy and the fruits crystalline and pure with impressive clarity and balance. A clear step up in quality and intensity on the maiden 2020 release.

(Wine Safari Score: 94/100 Greg Sherwood MW) RRP £28

Alheit Vineyards Cartology 2021, WO Western Cape, 13% Abv.

A blend of 90% Chenin Blanc and 10% Semillon from circa nine dryland bush vine parcels around the Cape with a minimum age of 35 years but with most between 40 to 80 years old. The entry shows a massive vibrant concentration of white citrus, peach and tangerine with complexing notes of wet thatch, fynbos and struck flint reduction. The palate is rich and textured, plush and fleshy, showing the true class and pedigree of the 2021 vintage. This must be among the finest Cartology releases produced to date. Do not miss it!

(Wine Safari Score: 96/100 Greg Sherwood MW) RRP £37

Alheit Vineyards Fire By Night Chenin Blanc 2021, WO Swartland, 13% Abv.

Previously known as Broom Ridge, this wine has reverted back to its original name and label due to popular demand. From vineyards on the property Chris bought in the Swartland, the vines were planted between 1971 and 1985 on decomposed granitic soils. The aromatics are predictably stony, dusty and pithy with white peach, crunchy pear, green tea, fynbos and tangerine undertones. The palate shows its usual tell-tale reductive flinty hints together with an incredible liquid minerality that is supported by crystalline pure fruits and pinpoint fresh acids. Once again, a very impressive showing from this Paardeberg vineyard.

(Wine Safari Score: 96/100 Greg Sherwood MW) RRP £50

Alheit Vineyards Nautical Dawn Chenin Blanc 2021, WO Helderberg, Stellenbosch, 13% Abv.

Grapes for this single vineyard wine come from a beautiful higher altitude site in the Helderberg planted in 1978 that overlooks False Bay. The soils are weathered decomposed granite that look like caster sugar in texture. True to this vineyard’s terroir, there is an incredibly pronounced rock salt salinity on the wine with an overt maritime sea breeze complexity that combines with notes of peach, pear, lime peel, tangerine and a savoury liquid minerality on the finish. Intense, complex and certainly quite profound. Wow!

(Wine Safari Score: 97+/100 Greg Sherwood MW) RRP £42

Alheit Vineyards Monument Semillon 2021, WO Franschhoek, 13% Abv. (Ex-La Colline)

The grapes from this famous La Colline vineyard were planted in 1936 and offer up complex notes of melted bee’s wax, incense, sweet baking herbs, black currant, lemon rind and tangerine. There is a generous, concentrated fleshy savoury fruit core all held in perfect equilibrium by fresh taut acids. Still showing a complexing hint of smoky reduction, this is undoubtedly a profound Semillon offering from one of the most famous vineyards in the country. Pop this in your cellar for 3 to 5 years and then drink over 8 to 10+ years.

(Wine Safari Score: 96+/100 Greg Sherwood MW) RRP £68

Alheit Vineyards Hemelrand Vine Garden 2021, WO Hemel-en-Aarde, 13.5% Abv.

A blend of 36% Chardonnay, 27% Roussanne, 18% Chenin Blanc, 16% Verdelho and 3% Muscat. This field blend offers up rich earthy, peachy fruit notes with yellow orchard fruits, white flowers, citrus oil and lychee with subtle baking spice nuances. The palate is fresh and full fruited with a fruit salad melange enlivened by juicy, tangy acids and a delicately savoury, mineral finish. Plenty of intensity on display here but also a fine purity and a harmonious balance. One of the best Hemelrand Vine Garden releases to date.

(Wine Safari Score: 95/100 Greg Sherwood MW) RRP £32

Alheit Vineyards Lost and Found Hanepoot Straw Wine 2019, WO Breedekloof, 7% Abv.

Looking at this rich, unctuous wine in the glass is akin to gazing through an ancient piece of Jurassic fossilized amber – ripe, captivating and most definitely warmly inviting. But this is no normal sweet wine and one sniff of the rich, ripe, potent aromatics reveals an enchanting bouquet of freshly boiled marmalade jam, green mango preserve, barley sugar, sweet herbs, wet straw and dried apricots. Give the dense, glycerol wine another slow swirl in a big Zalto Bordeaux bowl and it shifts gears again to offer yet more pithy orange peel nuances and seductive notes of quince jelly, pressed grapes and burnt caramel. Like some of South Africa’s other truly great sweet wines, the aromatics are so complex and seductive that you almost forget to sip the wine! Incredibly viscous and fleshy on the palate with a round glycerol opulence, there is no suggestion at any point that this wine is going to be overly sweet and clawing with its 450 g/l RS. In fact the sweetness is kept smartly in check by a searing acidity that scythes through the caramel and barley sugar laden fruit layers with samurai sword precision. The finish is gloriously mouth coating, hedonistic and persistent with just the most subtle sappy, pithy, bitter orange peel vermouth twang.

(Wine Safari Score: 98+/100 Greg Sherwood MW) RRP £75 per 37.5cl

Trade allocations available in the UK through their exclusive importer Dreyfus Ashby or retail from South African fine wine specialist Museum Wines.

An Iconic South African Sweet Wine Produced by Alheit Vineyards Hits the Market – Tasting the Lost & Found 2019 Hanepoot Dessert Wine…

November 14, 2022November 14, 2022 ~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

Most fine wine collectors and afficionados will need no reminding that South Africa has the proven ability to produce some of the most tantalizing and mesmerising dessert wines in the world. Whether it’s a throw back to the golden sweet wine age of the 1800’s or simply a built in cultural sweet tooth, South African winemakers have always excelled with which ever sweet wine style they have put their minds to. Of course the iconic Vin de Constance needs no introduction, but we should not forget the epic Cape Vintage and Cape Tawny Port styles from the Klein Karoo and the Swartland, the delicious Muscadelles and Hanepoot Jerepigos, the botrytised Sauvignon Blancs, Semillons and Rieslings, and more latterly, the incredible Straw Wines made from rack dried Chenin Blanc grapes. We are simply spoilt for choice in South Africa.

A new addition to the Cape’s iconic sweet wine selection.

While the wine industry bathes in the recent big scoring successes of straw wines like the 100-point Olerasay No.2 and No.3 from Mullineux and Leeu Family Wines, I was thrilled to see yet another incredible “certified heritage vineyard” used to produce an ambitiously noteworthy wine from the 2019 vintage. The Gevonden farm near Rawsonville, at the spot where the sheer cliffs of the Du Toitskloof open into the Breedekloof, is the site if a three-century old farmhouse just across the Moolenaars River. Right in front of this old farmhouse is a vineyard considered by many to be the oldest commercially productive parcel of vines in South Africa.

In the Cape, official record keeping of vineyard planting dates only started in 1900, so unfortunately nothing can officially pre-date that year although we know from word of mouth that vines were already in the ground and producing grapes on the Gevonden farm as well as from other famous old vineyards like the Basson Old Vine Cinsault in Wellington, farmed by the Mullineuxs, and the Eselshoek (Hanepoot) Muscat d’Alexandrie vineyard in the Swartland that Eben Sadie used to make delicious sweet wines from bush vines aged over 100 years old. According to the De Wet / Boonzaaier family history, the Gevonden Hanepoot vines were planted by one Jacobus Hendrik Stofberg De Wet in 1882 just after the first Anglo-Boer War from 1881-1882.

The gnarly old Hanepoot vines planted in circa 1882.

As has been the case for many of these newly discovered “old vineyards”, Chris Alheit came to know about this special heritage block through the ongoing work of Old Vine Project founder Rosa Kruger, who introduced Chris to farmer Neels Boonzaaier in late 2010. After several frustrated failed attempts to create something special, the sweet wine project was abandoned until a chance meeting with Neels’s son Janus in 2017 led to Chris Alheit giving the sweet wine project another bash. In 2019, the vineyard yielded what Chris considered was a large enough quantity of fully ripe grapes to attempt the rack drying process to concentrate the sugars.

The Resulting raisins were pressed for five days yielding juice with a sugar concentration of around 55 Brix. This juice was then fermented for 12 months, reaching just over 7% alcohol with a residual sugar of around 450 g/l. But the story does not end there. The 2019 vintage was also sadly the last vintage that the De Wet / Boonzaaier family, who owned the Gevonden farm for six generations, farmed this famous Hanepoot block and so Chris does not expect to be able to source fruit again. So perhaps the label should read, Lost & Found & Lost Again?