Discreetly tucked away in the southernmost corner of the spectacular Franschhoek Valley, the Holden Manz Wine Estate has earned a glowing reputation over the years as a premier boutique producer of ultra-premium, deeply expressive wines. Situated between the Franschhoek River and Stony Brook at an altitude of 300 metres, this 22-hectare estate benefits from an exceptional multi-layered terroir featuring rich loam soils and a unique mountain microclimate.
The signature Holden Manz wine style has always been unashamedly plush, opulent, and hedonistic. Under a philosophy that champions generous fruit concentration, textural elegance and seamless tannin structures, the estate focuses its own 16 hectares of vineyards heavily on classical red cultivars – namely Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Syrah, and Merlot.
These estate-grown grapes yield powerful, velvet-textured reds like the flagship Big G Bordeaux blend and their highly acclaimed Reserve range, known for sweet, ripe tannins and impressive cellaring potential. Complementing their reds, Holden Manz crafts sophisticated, wild-fermented white wines, including a critically acclaimed barrel-fermented Chardonnay Reserve, an elegant old vine Semillon and a notable Chenin Blanc Reserve. Striking a perfect balance between New World fruit intensity and Old World structural refinement, Holden Manz delivers a luxurious, deeply satisfying tasting experience tailored for the modern-day drinker in search of pure pleasure.
Holden Manz Chenin Blanc Reserve 2023, WO Simonsberg – Paarl, 12.5% Abv.
Already three years old, this enticing Chenin Blanc is crystalline and bright with a canary yellow hue. The aromatics are incredibly intricate and subtle, revealing delicate notes of savoury lemon cream biscuits, dried straw, waxy green apples, incense, and delicate quince nuances. While the nose is quite savoury with minor oak spice notes, the palate is far more vibrant and tangy, showing a pronounced sweet and sour mouthwatering acidity with hints of white peach, green melon and yellow apple fruits. Delicately pithy with a fine core of fruit concentration and depth, this is a very impressive expression of Chenin Blanc with a fine textural depth that should repay additional cellar ageing handsomely. Drink now to 2036+.
(Wine Safari Score: 95/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Holden Manz Chardonnay Reserve 2022, WO Coastal Region, 13% Abv.
The Reserve range wines from Holden Manz can normally be relied on to turn heads and this 2022 Chardonnay Reserve is no exception. Wonderfully cool, fresh, and crystalline, there is a lovely precise purity and brightness to the aromatics that flow from the glass with notes of pithy lemon peel, white blossoms, vanilla pod and subtle baking spices before delicate leesy, biscuity nuances. Medium bodied with a refreshingly moderate alcohol of 13% serves to emphasise the wines underlying minerality, freshness and focused energy. This is a wonderful success for the vintage. Drink now to 2032+.
(Wine Safari Score: 94+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Holden Manz Big G 2022, WO Franschhoek, 15% Abv.
The 2022 Holden Manz Big G returns to its big, bold hedonistic best after the cooler, fresher 2021 vintage. A Cabernet Sauvignon based Bordeaux blend with components of Cabernet Franc and Merlot, the individual parcels are picked to express a lavish ripeness and a true fruit intensity. Always made from specifically selected blocks on the farm, the aromatics are opulent and expressive with layers of sweet violet perfume, notions of black plums, black currant compote, roasted coffee beans and subtle mulberry nuances. The palate is sleek and silky, the tannins sweet, soft and elegantly generous adding to a fulsome glycerol weight in the mouth where the fruit power grows, held in a fine balance by soft well integrated acids. This wine is all about harmony and pleasure – seamless, comforting and simply delicious. Drink now to 2034+.
(Wine Safari Score: 93/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Holden Manz Merlot Reserve 2023, WO Franschhoek, 14% Abv.
The 2023 Reserve Merlot was aged in new French oak barrels for circa 20 months and possesses aromatics that suggest a wealth of seductive complexity, offering up intricately perfumed layers of violets, cinnamon and clove spices, pithy black cherry, black currant compote and hedonistic, brûléed dark mulberry hints. The subtle notes of vanilla pod oak and cedar spice continue on the palate that is impressively plush and creamy, the tannins delicately spicy but luxuriously soft and mouth coating. The reserve wines from Holden Manz are never short on fruit opulence and once again, the palate boasts an incredible depth of fruit with delicate graphite and roasted coffee bean notes on the finish. A wine that will resonate with fine wine drinkers searching for palate depth and opulence but without the structure and muscularity of Cabernet Sauvignon. Drink now to 2036+.
(Wine Safari Score: 94+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Holden Manz Cabernet Franc Reserve 2023, WO Franschhoek, 14% Abv.
The Cabernet Franc Reserve has always been one of Holden Manz’s most impressive wines, which is fortunate because after decades in the wilderness, this cultivar is experiencing somewhat of a highlife moment with fine wine consumers. This splendid example shows the true essence of Cabernet Franc with Holden Manz’s signature opulence and concentration at the fore. The aromatics on the 2023 are actually surprisingly quite classical and restrained, leading with top notes of dried violets, bay leaf, black chai tea, sweet cedar, and a graphite minerality over a solid layer of dark broody black berry fruits. The hints of sweet tobacco leaf, pepper and sappy cedar spice continue on the plush, densely textured palate with subtle dried herb notes and picante fine grained stony tannins on the finish. When it comes to Cabernet Franc, this is simply top-drawer quality. Drink now to 2038+.
(Wine Safari Score: 95/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
