I often say that the best new wine finds are made through wine maker referrals. With the Lysa Verdelho from Guillaume Nell, it is no different. I only got to catch up with Guillaume at the New Wave Tasting in London in September but my friend Ian Naude had already alerted me to his wines many months before.

This note is now perhaps a bit late in the day as Guillaume has sold out most of his wines in the UK after a rock star mention from Jancis Robinson MW in the Financial Times, but nevertheless, I just wanted to document this excellent wine so if for no other reason, I can look back on my tasting notes in years to come and bookend the moment in time that a great new winemaking talent came on to the scene in South Africa! Guillaume is one to watch. If you missed the 2019… I have no doubt his future wines will be every bit as impressive.

Lysa Verdelho 2019, WO Stellenbosch, 13.5 Abv.

A fabulously crystalline bright colour suggests real purity and clarity of fruit flavours. So it’s no surprise that when you stick your nose in the glass you are assaulted but a complex aromatic array of white citrus, green apple pastille, cream soda, wet straw, honeysuckle blossom, tangerine peel and crunchy white peach fruit notes. Thoroughly seductive. The palate doesn’t let up either with an electric acidity that is plugged straight into the mains, intelligently balanced by pristine, crystalline, pure green Granny Smith apple fruit zest, taut sleek white citrus zing, pithy yellow grapefruit and sour nectarine nuances. The concentration is turbo charged and the structure clean, linear and oh so pure with just the right amount of crushed rock minerality on the salty, candied finish. Yes, it’s mind blowingly delicious.

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