Roussanne

Anysbos Winery – The Best Kept Secret in the Western Cape’s Bot River Wine Region…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

Located in the heart of the Bot River valley, Anysbos is far more than a traditional winery; it is a holistic farm where the wild beauty of the Overberg meets refined, small-batch craftsmanship. Established by Johan and Sue Heyns, the farm takes its name from the Anysboegoe, a local wild anise shrub that dots the landscape. This connection to the land is the winery’s guiding light, emphasizing a deep respect for the indigenous flora and the unique shale-heavy soils of the region.

The winemaking, led by the talented Marelise Niemann, focuses on varieties that thrive in the valley’s dry-land conditions. Anysbos has carved a niche for itself with its Rhône-style blends and exceptional Chenin Blanc. Signature labels like the Tesame (a Grenache-led blend) and the Disdit white blend are celebrated for their elegance, bright acidity, and true “sense of place.” Beyond the cellar, Anysbos is a Mediterranean-inspired sanctuary. The farm is equally famous for its award-winning goat’s cheese and its sprawling olive groves, which produce some of the finest oils in the district. By integrating livestock, fynbos conservation, and viticulture, Anysbos stands as a premier example of the authentic, unpretentious, and high-quality farming that defines the Bot River community. 

I recently caught up with owner Johan for dinner in London while he was on a whirlwind tour of the market. Together we tasted a range of wines that are undoubtedly one of the best kept secrets of the Bot River wine region.

Anysbos Disdit 2022, WO Bot River, 13% Abv. 

A blend of 69% Chenin Blanc, 13% Roussanne, 12% Marsanne and 6% Grenache Blanc. The Chenin shows beautifully with hints of lemon grass, lanolin and waxy lemon citrus peel. There is lovely energy here, cool, creamy and plush with seamless elegance, fantastic balance and deliciously tangy acids. Impressive concentration and focus, this is a beautifully fresh Rhone blend! Drink now to 2036+.

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

Anysbos Disdit 2023, WO Bot River, 13% Abv. 

A blend of 57% Chenin Blanc, 17% Grenache Blanc, 17% Marsanne and 9% Roussanne. An exotic aroma builds off delightful notes of lemon and herbs, buttered white toast, glazed brioche and lees complexity. The palate reveals a creamy balance with a fulsome mid-palate, a really saline, pithy concentration and a long, cool, seamless finish. The acids are soft but invigorating, beautifully integrated, making for a very smart wine. Drink now to 2036+.

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

Anysbos Tesame 2021, WO Bot River, 12.5% Abv.

A blend of 47% Grenache Noir, 45% Syrah and 8% Cinsault aged for 20 months in old oak. A classically cool, taut, fresh vintage speaks with a soft voice, whispering an aromatic complexity of sappy berries, crunchy red fruits full of dried herbs, fynbos spice and an irony ferrous minerality. Such a pretty wine with a cranberry and pomegranate freshness and purity with a delicate bramble berry hint. A really very special wine with such beautiful texture and freshness at such a meagre alcohol! Love it! Drink now to 2038+.

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

Anysbos Tesame 2022, WO Bot River, 13% Abv.

A blend of 55% Grenache Noir, 33% Syrah and 12% Cinsault aged for 16 months in old oak using a partial whole bunch portion. Incredibly pristine and bright, this is an evocative wine with crystalline red berry fruits, cranberry, bramble berry and a fynbos herby spice. The palate expertly walks a tightrope between sweet concentrated red berry fruits, stony minerality and a sweet bay leaf herby, silky finish. Drink now to 2036.

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

Anysbos Tesame 2023, WO Bot River, 13% Abv.

A blend of 56% Grenache Noir, 39% Syrah and 5% Cinsault aged for 16 months in old oak. This is a big, intense, punchy, extroverted style in 2023. Simply put, it takes your breath away. The aromatics are sweet and sappy, layered with dried herbs, fynbos, pithy red plum and red currant berry fruits. The integration and balance on the palate are simply stunning. This is the business! A fabulous wine I’d love a case of in my cellar. Drink now to 2038+.

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

The Anysbos wines are imported exclusively into the UK by Wood Winters Wine Merchants. 

Contact: andrew@woodwinters.com for more information on pricing and allocations.

The Majesty of the Fitou Region On Full Display with This Attractive 2021 White Blend…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

Domaine de la Rochelierre is a 15 hectare property in Fitou, right on the French south coast just north of Perpignan, run by Jean-Marie and Emilie Fabre. When I returned to the UK 25 years ago, you couldn’t walk into a supermarket, a high street wine shop or an indie merchant without finding an array of primarily red but also white Fitou wines. Somehow, in the clamour for big name Bordeaux, Burgundy and Rhone Valley wines, ancient quality wine producing regions like Fitou have been somewhat usurped by more fashionable, more marketed regions. But the promise of quality certainly remains.

At Domaine de la Rochelierre, they use the Cousinié method to care for their vines, a combination of organic and biodynamic principles without fully subscribing to either school, and their Cuvée Camille is a positively joyful blend of southern varieties, featuring 50% Vermentino, 30% Roussanne and 20% Grenache Blanc – which spends just a couple of months in barrel before bottling. Surely it’s time that value and quality seeking drinkers rediscover the magic of the Fitou region again?

Cuvée Camille 60 & XV, Domaine de la Rochelierre 2021, IGP Pays d’Oc, 13.5% Abv. 

The 2021 is an excellent white wine vintage across France in what was a much cooler, fresher vintage. Accordingly, this classy white shows exuberantly pithy aromatics of yellow grapefruit, lime peel, fresh fennel root, green herbs and a wet Granite minerality. The palate is deliciously crisp and fresh with a fine supporting weight of yellow citrus fruits, wet stones, white peach, nutty nougat, garrigue herbs and a pithy phenolic grape skin grip on the finish. What a beautifully versatile, food friendly wine. Drink now on release and over the next 3 to 4 years. 

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

The wines are available in the UK from Private Cellar for £98 per 6 inc. (£16.33pb)

http://www.privatecellar.co.uk

Sutherland Winery Excels with Another Cool Climate Rhone White Blend 2023 Release…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

Understandably, much of the international Cape white blend wine hype has justifiably been focused on Chenin Blanc based wines which often incorporate portions of Semillon, Grenache Blanc, Clairette Blanche, Semillon Gris, Palomino, Verdelho and even Chardonnay. These blends have created a unique white fine wine ‘space’ that few, if any, other wine producing nations can compete in. This category has been one of South Africa’s great wine success stories globally along with, arguably, pure varietal Old Vine Chenin Blanc.

The 2023 release was awarded 5 Stars in the Platter’s Wine Guide 2025.

But we should not forget that many producers have long been looking at alternative white varieties that have historically performed well in warmer European regions like the Rhone Valley and the Languedoc, which have far more in common with the Cape’s more Mediterranean climate than either Burgundy, Bordeaux or the Loire Valley’s more continental climates do. 

Sutherland Vineyards in Elgin is owned by Stellenbosch icon, Thelema Mountain Vineyards, being established in the early 2000s by owner Gyles Webb, to focus on small-scale, cool climate wine styles. With vineyards located just 9km from the cooling Atlantic Ocean at altitudes between 140m and 250m, the conditions are ideal for aromatic cultivars such as Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Chardonnay and their new release Viognier Roussanne. (RRP R250 per bottle in SA.)

Sutherland Viognier Roussanne 2023, WO Elgin, 13% Abv.

Sutherland was always established to pursue cool climate expressions and this Rhone blend of Viognier and Roussanne is an aromatic white that was fermented in seasoned barrels for 10 months in order to add complexity, texture and mouthfeel. On the nose, the wine boasts aromatics of yellow stone fruits, pear, summer orchard fruits, white peaches and apricots over an intense and well-defined crushed gravel mineral dustiness with a sprinkling of white pepper and dried baking herbs. The creamy, gently glycerol palate is enlivened with a deliciously tangy fresh acidity with layers of white peach, lemon grass, marzipan, spicy herbs, and a pronounced nutty wet stone minerality, finishing with real drive and persistence. This is an impressive Rhone blend with the verve and vigour of the 2023 vintage and a delicious concentration to match. Drink this energetic beauty on release or age for 2 to 3 more years under screw cap to develop the peach and marzipan characters. 

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

Prodigious Stellenbosch Red Wine Producer Stark-Conde Release Another Block Buster White – Part 2: Tasting the 2021 Field Blend…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

This deliciously complex white is a barrel-fermented blend of 54% Roussanne, 30% Chenin Blanc, 9% Verdelho and 7% Viognier. All sourced from a single vineyard at the entrance of the Stark-Conde Oude Nektar farm, it is planted to a mix of varietals in order to match the complex mosaic of soil types found on this unique plot of land. The grapes are all picked at the same time, pressed and co-fermented together as a genuine field blend.

Stark-Conde Field Blend 2021, WO Jonkershoek Valley, Stellenbosch, 13% Abv.

Very Southern Rhone in its varietal mix, but decidedly Mediterranean on the nose with lifted aromatics of wild garlic leaf, white blossom, sweet green herbs, bruised apple and subtle waxy incense notes over a dusty, stony granitic minerality. The barrel fermentation lends additional savoury, honied notes of lemon biscuits, warm white toast and peach stone fruits. On the palate there is a fabulous vibrancy and tangy acid freshness of crunchy yellow orchard fruits, white peach, ripe tangerines and a long, slightly pithy, phenolic finish of tart green pears and wet river pebble minerality. The richness and textural generosity of the of the Roussanne and Viognier is beautifully managed, enlivened by the salinity and freshness of the Chenin Blanc and Verdelho. Field blends seem to be the new trend setters for white wines in the Cape and I have not tasted many better than this yet. Another super exciting Cape white blend that expresses its own sense of place. Drink this on release and over the next 6 to 8+ years.

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

The Crystalline Brilliance of John Seccombe – Tasting the Exceptional Thorne & Daughters Rocking Horse 2018 White Blend…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ 2 Comments

I have been following the outstanding work of John Seccombe from the very beginning of his Thorne & Daughters label which was started in 2012 by John and wife Tasha with the aim to produce authentic wines in the beautiful Western Cape. John works with grapes from all over the Cape peninsula and seems to have honed a particularly refined aesthetic when it comes to his winemaking. His Thorne and Daughters family concern is truly pushing the boundaries with old vines and simple, natural winemaking techniques.

Sometimes other producer’s wines have been more highly lauded or more vocally praised but this certainly has nothing to do with the quality of John’s wines. Indeed, John must be one of the most modest, humble and intelligent winemakers plying his trade in the Cape… silently and brilliantly. John’s 2018 Thorne & Daughters Rocking Horse Cape white blend incorporates several old vine heritage vineyards that looks more to Burgundy rather than the Rhône for its stylistic compass.

With the release of John’s 2019 Rocking Horse hitting the airwaves at the moment, I thought it would be the perfect time to retaste the impressive 2018 blend, a wine that got a lot of wine trade tongues wagging at the New Wave 2019 tasting in London last year. As the current release and the wine most widely available, the 2018 is certainly worth further examination.

Thorne & Daughters Rocking Horse 2018 wWhite Blend, WO Western Cape, 13.2 Abv.

The 2018 is an exotic Mediterranean blend of 25% Roussanne, 22% Semillon, 19% Chardonnay, 18% Clairette Blanche and 16% Chenin Blanc. A rich straw yellow colour, the aromatics are complex and expressive brimming with notes of leesy lemon biscuits, white citrus, dried baking herbs, fynbos and thatch and dried tangerine peel. On the palate, the textural intricacy is notable as you would expect from a wine with 25% Roussanne in the blend, which lends extra dimensions of fleshy white stone fruit and marzipan depth. Naturally fermented in old oak, the 2018 shows the classical crystalline purity of the vintage framed by a tart lemon lime acidity and a stony, liquid mineral granitic complexity. Beautifully sensual and pristinely balance, every mouthful stimulates the senses and gives the drinker additional flavours to contemplate… crisp white peaches, crunchy green pears, granny smith apples, bay leaf herbal notes  and yet more green mango and saline twang on the long exhilarating finish. Impressively intense and taut for the vintage, this must be one of the most drop dead gorgeous white blends produced in the Cape at the moment. Drink now or age for 10+ years.

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

Thorne & Daughters wines are distributed in the UK by Liberty Wines.