Cape Blend

Wellington’s Welbedacht Estate Release a Notable Patriot 2024 Cape Blend…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ 1 Comment

The Welbedacht Wine Estate is a historic property in Wellington, in the heart of South Africa’s Cape winelands. Though the farm’s roots trace back to the 1830s, its modern chapter began in 1997 when former Springbok lock Schalk Burger Sr. acquired the estate, later building a 1,000-ton cellar completed in time for the 2005 harvest. Today, Welbedacht is recognised as one of the Wellington region’s leading producers, blending old vine vineyards, some over 40 years old, with new plantings guided by generations of winemaking experience.

At the heart of the estate’s portfolio stands its flagship wine: Die Afrikaanse Patriot Kaapse Versnit, a Cape Blend crafted as a tribute to the Afrikaans-speaking community and its contribution to South Africa’s cultural landscape. The wine draws its name and meaning from the historic Groenberg school on the Welbedacht farm, a site closely tied to the early movement for the recognition of Afrikaans as an official language. Carefully composed from classic varieties in the tradition of award-winning Cape reds, the blend reflects the depth, complexity, and character of the Boland’s vineyards.

More than just a wine, Die Afrikaanse Patriot 2024 Cape Blend is a bottled piece of heritage, connecting Welbedacht’s terroir to the deeper story of language, identity, and culture in the Cape.

Welbedacht Estate Die Afrikaanse Patriot 2024 Cape Blend, WO Groenberg, 14% Abv.

A blend of Pinotage, Mourvedre, Syrah and Petit Verdot creates a plush luxurious expression with opulent hedonistic aromatics of hoisin plum sauce, mulberries and macerated earthy black currants with a dusting of vanilla pod spice. In the mouth, the palate is broad and lush, medium to full bodied with a seamlessly elegant texture, compact creamy tannins and a pronounced undertone of cassis leaf and boiled black currant rock candy. Impressively elegant with a harmonious mouth coating intensity, this red is undoubtedly one of the jewels in the Welbedacht crown. Drink now and over the next decade.

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

The Welbedacht wines are available in the UK from importer The Sporting Wine Club.

Sakkie Mouton Releases Another Characterful and Accomplished Full On Misfit 2024 White Blend…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

Sakkie Mouton is a highly talented young South African winemaker who has, over the past eight years, built a veritable cult following on the wild, wind swept West Coast of the Western Cape. Since his maiden 2018 Revenge of the Crayfish Chenin Blanc, he’s earned a reputation for terroir-driven, minimal-intervention wines from some of the most unforgiving vineyard sites in South Africa, sourcing fruit from cool, Atlantic-influenced spots in Vredendal and Koekenaap.

While his flagship white is considered his Revenge of the Crayfish Chenin Blanc, his Full On Misfit white blend, whose name says it all, deliberately avoids imitating a Rhône, Portuguese, or classic Cape white blend, aiming instead to be something wholly its own.  The composition shifts vintage to vintage, but centres on Chenin Blanc, Colombard, Macabeo, and Muscat d’Alexandrie, grown on sandstone and silty soils not far from the cold Atlantic Ocean. Production is hands-on and low-tech, with grapes picked in the early morning hours for freshness, and then foot-stomped in an old basket press with only a touch of sulphur added.

Sakkie Mouton (left) tasting with Ex-England cricket captain, Allan Lamb, at 67 Pall Mall during the recent UK launch of his new vintage releases.

I have often praised the wine’s “West Coast Swagger,” and later vintages have only sharpened that identity further – the 2022 was called his “most accomplished to date”, while his 2023 leaned more heavily on Chenin Blanc, showing classical lemon verbena, white peach, and a fresh, salty maritime finish. Together, Sakkie’s wines represent some of the most original and closely watched expressions coming out of South Africa’s West Coast today, and his Full On Misfit white blend is the canvas that allows Sakkie to continue experimenting and innovating.

Sakkie Mouton Family Wines Full on Misfit 2024, WO Western Cape, 12.75% Abv.

1.4g/l RS | 7.3g/l TA | 3.07pH

Of all the wines made by Sakkie Mouton, it is probably the Full on Misfit White Blend that has evolved the most over the past few years as it represents his unofficial playground to experiment. The 2024 is made from three different vineyards located between 15 and 25kms from the cold Atlantic Ocean, around the town of Vredendal on the West Coast, and is a blend of 75% Chenin Blanc, 18% Colombar and 7% Harslevelu. Fermented in stainless steel, the individual cultivars were then aged in 500 litre oak barrels for 8 months before being blended and aged for a further 3 months before bottling. Beautifully crystalline and fresh, the aromatics show pretty perfumed notes of white blossom, lime peel, grapefruit marmalade and crunchy white peaches drizzled in honey. The signature salinity Sakkie’s wines are so famous for is ever present on the palate, bristling alongside bright steely acids, tangerine fruits, lime cordial and finishing with a mouth-wateringly tangy pear fruit pastille persistence. The 2024 West Coast whites might not have the same muscle of the 2023s or the intense sweet fruit concentration of the 2025s, but they are certainly unrivalled in their purity, steely tension, and crystalline structures. Enjoy now to 2034+.

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

The Sakkie Mouton Family Wines are imported into the UK by South African specialist merchant Museum Wines and Wood Winters UK.

Reinventing The Original Cape Red Blend – Tasting the New Mullineux and Leeu Family Wines Leeu Passant 2016 Dry Red Release…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ 1 Comment

I recently caught up with Swartland rock star wine couple Chris and Andrea Mullineux at their Roundstone farm to taste their new Leeu Passant releases. Of all the new wine brands released on to the South African and international wine market of late, few have generated as much discussion and debate as the Leeu Passant Dry Cape Red.

Too much of this discussion has perhaps superficially centred around the wine’s ultra premium pricing of £95-£100 per bottle and whether this pricing is merited instead of around the wine’s exceptional quality, its old vine fruit sources and it’s philosophical interpretation of a wine style synonymous with the early years of the 20th century Cape wine industry.

But new innovative wines that push the boundaries usually make easy targets for wine trade sceptics. It is without doubt the success of wines like this that will open new doors and pathways to financial viability and success for the whole of the South African wine industry. In the meantime, indulge yourself and savour some true precision winemaking with the Leeu Passant Dry Red.

Leeu Passant Dry Red Wines 2016, WO Western Cape, 14 Abv.

A blend of 36% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Cabernet Franc and 31% Cinsault using 100% whole bunch for the Cabernet Franc and Cinsault portions. 100% new oak was used for the Cabernet Franc fermentation. Lifted and aromatic, this wine initially displays a pronounced sweet leaf, red currant, cedar and red berry fruit character. Intensely focused concentration from low yields and super small berries in 2016 makes for a wine brimming with overt notes of earl grey tea, bergamot spice, pithy citrus peel, spicy red bramble berries and a broody, earthy red currant depth. A fine wine with ample structure and seriousness, impressive minerality, precision and power. This red will certainly be a great keeper that’s destined for many a collectors’ cellar. Hats off to Chris and Andrea Mullineux for succeeding in creating yet another collectable vinous gem in only year two of this new project. Drink on release if you are flamboyant, drink after 10 years if you are patient, and drink after 30+ if you are youthful and have time on your side.

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