Donovan Rall

From the Fine Wine Safari Cellar – Part 4: Donovan Rall’s White Blend 2012 Revisited…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

I first met Donovan Rall at the Cape White Blend Conference in 2009 at Forest 44 in Stellenbosch where Ian Naude had assembled 80+ of South Africa’s greatest winemakers to listen to Eben Sadie, Peter Fischer and myself, talk about the farming, production, and marketing of world class white blends. During one of the intermissions, this giant Viking came up to me and introduced himself. Donovan had worked for several months in London with an ex-colleague of mine at the Harvey Nichols department store fine wine section in Knightsbridge, London. 

Offering me two bottles of his by then long sold-out maiden release Rall White Blend, he asked me to drink one and let him know what I thought, and also if I could please take the other bottle back to London for his old colleague to enjoy, which I of course obliged. The maiden vintage turned out to be the first of three consecutive 5 Star Platter Guide wines that he eventually went on to produce. Donovan’s white blend became a cult wine over a handful of vintages and is still today established as one of the best on the market, as was confirmed by this vintage 2012.

Donovan Rall pouring his wines in London.

Rall White Blend 2012, WO Coastal Origin, 14.5% Abv.

The second of three bottles I found in my cellar, this bottle represents an even fresher and more vibrant expression of this flagship white blend from Donovan Rall than previous bottles. A nine barrel blend of Chenin Blanc, Verdelho, Chardonnay and Viognier, the aromatics are focused, crisp, cool and incredibly vital with hints of buttered popcorn, lemon biscuits, and savoury leesy notes before a crushed Granite, sweet quince and yellow orchard fruit complexity emerges. Despite the 14.5% alcohol, the palate is fresh, pure and intense with a tangy layering of orange peel, passion fruit, honeycomb, guava roll and an enticing, piercing liquid minerality on the finish. An astonishing bottle with harmony and textural finesse, that goes a long way in explaining why top Cape White Blends are such a successful global phenomenon! 

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

Donovan Rall Creating Grand Cru Quality Wines in The Cape – Tasting the New Rall 2019 White Blend…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ 4 Comments

I first met Donovan Rall at the Cape White Blend Conference in 2009 at Forest 44 in Stellenbosch where Ian Naude had assemble 80+ of South Africa’s greatest winemakers to listen to Eben Sadie, Peter Fischer and myself talk about the farming, production and marketing of world class white blends. During one of the intermissions, this giant Viking came up to me and introduced himself. Little did I know that Donovan had worked for several months with a Handford colleague of mine at the Harvey Nichols fine wine department in Knightsbridge, London. Offering me two bottles of his by then long sold out maiden release Rall White Blend, he asked me to drink one and let him know what I thought, and also if I could please take the other bottle back to London for his old colleague Gavin to enjoy. I of course obliged.

I am not sure why he wanted to hear what I thought about his wine as this maiden vintage was already the first of three consecutive 5 Star Platter Guide wines that he eventually went on to produce. Now I am willing to wager a serious bet that no other wine maker in South Africa has achieved the fabled 5 Stars from Platter for their first three vintages ever produced! Surely a record that won’t be broken any time soon.

Rall White Blend 2019, WO Coastal Region, 13% Abv.

Some of the most serious white wines in the world are more often than not wines that can be quite illusive, restrained and slightly introverted. That’s because the greatest white wines don’t have to advertise their true potential on release with vulgar “low hanging fruit” to draw attention. It’s the complete opposite – mystery, reserve and restraint. That is exactly where this epic white blend from Donovan fits in. An exotic blend of 68% Chenin Blanc, 28% Verdelho and 4% Viognier, the fruit for this wine was sourced from a number of soil types before being fermented with indigenous yeasts and then aged for 10 months in old French oak. The nose on this blend suggests a lot but simultaneously gives little away boasting a complex but understated melange of green pears, yellow grapefruit, green apple and tangerine pith. The palate is fabulously steely and linear, taut and precise with real structure and focused purity but also an impressively harmonious balance and textural finesse that you only normally experience on the greatest white vintages of Grand Cru Burgundy. South Africa is indeed blessed to possess the raw materials (and winemaking talent) to create incredible wines like this for an absolute steal. Drink a bottle or two on release after an hours decant and cellar the rest for a good 5 to 8+ years.

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

Another New Super Impressive White Release From Larger Than Life Winemaker Donovan Rall…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ 2 Comments

I recently caught up with the Viking giant Donovan Rall to taste his exciting new release whites and reds. I first met Donovan at the White Blend Seminar in 2009 where I co-presented a seminar at Forest44 in Stellenbosch with Eben Sadie. He was attending with a broad who’s who of the younger generation of the South African wine industry. 


He pulled me over at the end and offered up two rare bottles of his sold out first vintage Rall White Blend that had just won 5 stars in the Platter Guide. Unbeknownst to me at the time, Donovan had previously worked at premium London retailer Harvey Nichols with our Handford General Manager, Gavin Deaville. Donovan asked me to take the bottles back to London and enjoy them with Gavin and let him know what I thought of the wine.


Fast forward almost 8 years and Donovan is an established producer of some very fine whites and reds from multiple regions. But it was this unusual, saline, fresh Grenache Blanc 2016 that caught my eye at our recent tasting and made me sit up and pay closer attention.


(The only previous South African Grenache Blanc I’ve enjoyed this much was Chris Williams’s Foundry 2013 that garnered a sizeable amount of praise in the UK media, including very favourable commentary from Tim Atkin MW and Victoria Moore of The Telegraph broadsheet newspaper.)


Rall Grenache Blanc 2016, W.O. Piekenierskloof, 12.5 Abv.

Partially skin Fermented in a combination of open top wood fermenters (20%) and Eggs (80%), then aged in concrete and old oak, this compelling white has a very pronounced saline, sea breeze, briney salinity mixed with yellow stone fruits, white flowers and crunchy white peaches. The palate is taut, displaying a zippy freshness, and a dusty, granitic, alka seltzer mineral complexity. There are some waxy phenolics adding texture and extra depth, but the wine retains great tension and remains fine and focused from start to finish. A genuinely impressive, high achieving expression of Grenache Blanc. Chapeau Donovan!

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