Cape White Blend

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.

Writing about and reviewing Cape White Blends has got to be one of my favourite pastimes. Why you may ask? Well, it’s all about the unique ability of the Cape producers to mix and match some truly expressive varieties to produce incredible wines that despite being a fruit salad of varieties, continue to display their own unique sense of terroir and place while producing wines of incredible quality with impressive age worthy credentials. Oh, and of course they are impossible to imitate and copy. Some countries like Chile and New Zealand have tried their hand at producing similar esoteric white blends but I think it’s safe to say none have gained an international following and quality reputation equal to any of the great brands from the Cape.

John Seccombe has been producing his unique Rocking Horse Cape White Blend since the 2013 vintage and every subsequent vintage seems to get more sophisticated and refined. As well as being one of the most exciting white blends in the Cape, it also represents incredible value for money, something that is becoming less and less common in the world of fine wine these days. This is most definitely a wine you would want in your cellar.

Thorne & Daughters Rocking Horse 2020 Cape White Blend, WO Western Cape, 13.5% Abv.

A complex blend of 35% Semillon from Franschhoek, 28% Roussanne from both Stellenbosch and the Paardeberg, 16% Chardonnay from the Ceres Plateau, 15% Chenin Blanc from the Paardeberg and 6% Clairette Blanche from the Swartland. The aromatics display a seductive melange of white peach, green pear, freshly squeezed lime, tangerine peel and delicate hints of roasted pistachio nuts. Still embryonic in its youth, the palate reveals impressive linearity and tension, a fresh acid frame and delicious lingering notes of green apple, savoury yellow orchard fruits and bees wax complexity. There is more an educated sense of intensity and concentration on the palate rather than an overt unctuousness. But everything points to a very impressive wine with a fabulous stony minerality and a classically harmonious finish. Drink now over a couple of days or bury in the cellar for 3 to 5 years minimum.

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