Colombar

I recently rated and reviewed the excellent Old Vine Chenin Blanc from Gabriel Du Bois, an ex-Elsenburg wine college student I had very briefly lectured to on the international fine wine market. Well, yet another ex-Elsenburg student I briefly lectured to has risen from the retired textbooks of university academia and finally released his own first wine – Joshua Van Blommestein. Bottled under the eponymous Van Blommestein Wines label, this is a brand Joshua established in 2023, and his first release is a highly accomplished Old Vine Colombar white from the Breedekloof.

The Elsenburg Agricultural Training Institute, to use its full name, has become world famous for cultivating highly skilled, ‘hit-the-ground-running’ kind of students who have the ability to dive straight into the complex and challenging commercial world of agriculture… and winemaking in particular. Based on what I tasted with this exciting new 2025 Colombar release, Joshua is yet another bright talent for the wine industry to keep a very close eye on. I feel honoured to be one of the first international critics to review his wine.

Van Blommestein Wines Klipdans Colombar 2025, WO Breedekloof, 11.39% Abv.

2.2 g/l RS | 5/7 gL TA.

Most of the best Colombar expressions in the Cape come from Old Vines and this Klipdans Colombar 2025 from Joshua Van Blommestein is made from a 42-year-old heritage certified vineyard in the Breedekloof grown on rocky sandy soils. Picked in the early morning to retain freshness before being basket pressed, the juice is then settled for 24 hours and racked straight into 400 litre old oak barrels for a natural fermentation. With an 11.39% alcohol, the wine is unsurprisingly crisp, taut, and crystalline with pronounced aromatic notes of white blossoms, pear drop, green apple and cream soda alongside a well-defined stony mineral thread. The oak interplay is delicately spicy and restrained offering up subtle hints of dried herbs and cinnamon spice that follow to the palate where the wine shows an impressive glycerol mouthfeel despite its low abv. with notes of white peach, crunchy green pear and wet stone liquid minerality. Tasted over several days, any initial youthful suggestions of flinty struck match reduction blow off very quickly to reveal a beautifully pure, naked terroir expression of Colombar. The palate concentration and textural weight suggest this maiden release will drink well over 3 to 5+ years but I suggest enjoying its vibrancy and mouthwatering freshness over the next 2 to 3+ years.

(Wine Safari Score: 93+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

For trade enquiries, please contact Joshua at: joshua@vbwines.co.za

I first encountered Gunter Schultz’s delicious Colombar at the Cape Wine Trade Fair 2022 where he was also pouring his impressive Baleia Wines. The Reisiger 2022 is made from 29-year-old Colombar bush vines grown by Danie “Dumpies” van der Merwe from Mostertshoek near Goudini in the Breedekloof.

Sold in previous years to the local co-operative winery, Gunter and Danie decided that these nearly old vine vineyards would be perfect for producing a premium dry Colombar, a style rising in popularity by the day, as championed by Colombar high disciples like Ian Naude with his Langpad, Sakkie Mouton with his Vloedvlak, and Tinus Kruger with the original Aspoestertjie Colombard made from a 40-year-old vineyard in Riebeeksrivier in the Swartland. For their first wine, only four rows were used in a one-off experimental production of just over 1000 bottles… and the results are remarkable.

Gunter Schultz Reisiger Colombar 2022, WO Western Cape, 11% Abv.

Like all the very best examples coming on to the market in South Africa, the Reisiger is impressively cool, clean and precise with a crystalline demeanour and mouth-watering aromatics of lime peel, fresh guava, wet hay, dried herbs, and freshly cut apple with underlying notes of crushed gravel and wet slate adding fabulous nuances of minerality. The palate is mouthwatering and steely, pure, crisp and bright with a tart tangy lemony acidity, notions of crunchy white peach, pithy lemon peel, lime cordial and a salty, stony liquid minerality on the finish. What elevates this wine in stature is not only its crystalline purity and laser-like focus, but also the electric underlying acid tension and structure on the palate, not dissimilar to a premium flinty Pouilly Fumé from the Loire or a vibrant old vine Assyrtiko from Greece. A beautifully conceived wine that is deftly handled, fabulously pure and fresh, but never frivolous. A perfect summertime indulgence.

(Wine Safari Score: 93+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)