Skurfberg

Sadie Family Wines Unveils An Eye-Catching Array of 2023 Vintage ‘Distriksreeks’ Old Vine Whites…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

Tasting the new release whites from Eben Sadie is always one of the fine wine highlights of the year. With the 2023 wines now mostly safely in collectors’ cellars, I thought it would be a good time to publish my notes from a recent tasting at 67 Pall Mall in London where we drank these enthralling new white releases over dinner. Tasting is one thing, but drinking a fine wine is a completely different affair, allowing one to fully appreciate the wines.

As Eben Sadie showcases his new multi-million rand wine cellar on his Paardeberg farm, he has also decided to tweak his Old Vine Series range, renaming it the “Distriksreeks” or District Series, for reasons as he explains below.

“The South African wine industry, in a testament to its commitment to quality and authenticity, embraced the significance of origin in 1973. This commitment was further solidified by its enforcement through law, as the importance of demarcation and origin continued to grow. The districts, the most significant of these early demarcations, remain the cornerstone of the origin scheme. We essentially work with the following districts: SWARTLAND (Skerpioen, Pofadder, Treinspoor, Voetpad & Rotsbank, Columella & Palladius), CITRUSDAL MOUNTAIN (Skurfberg, Kokerboom & Soldaat) and last but not least, for good measure we work with STELLENBOSCH with the Mev. Kirsten vineyard. As time passed, we realised that our focus had moved to the regionality of the districts and their characteristics. We now want to highlight the notion of the individual terroirs rather than the mere age of the vines. The site will always be more important than any other singular condition.” – Eben Sadie

“This 2023 Rotsbank bottling displays match flint, almost crushed oyster shell aromas with grapefruit aspects. The wine is incredibly concentrated on the aromatics, and the tannins have massive tension. The wine’s substantial acidity and dry finish suggest that it will only benefit much from the time in the bottle. It is one of the most linear expressions of the year. It is a blue steel Chenin.” – Eben Sadie

Sadie Family Wines Die Distriksreeks Rotsbank 2023, 13.5% Abv.

Crystalline and star bright in the glass with a youthful green tinge, alluring struck flint reduction, crushed Granite minerality, crunchy green apple, and wet straw aromatics. Intense, linear, incredibly focused and precise with a big mid-palate breadth but a slightly clipped entry and finish in its youth. Give this time to fully flesh out and fill its frame. Drink from 2026 to 2038+.

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

“For this 2023 Skurfberg vintage, we also opted to pick seemingly prematurely, as it is in the Citrusdal Mountains and shares the same seasonal dynamics. The physiology of the fruit seemed delayed, yet the wine also yielded 13.9% alcohol. The combination of the volume of the wine and the firm acidity makes for an incredible wine that is essentially built to last. The trademark granny smith apple, pear skin, and lanolin are very present in the aromas. The wine’s viscosity and volume, combined with the cutting acidity, suggest that this vintage has the mechanics to age incredibly well, like Kokerboom.” – Eben Sadie

Sadie Family Wines Die Distriksreeks Skurfberg 2023, 14% Abv.

Displays tight slightly muted aromatics. But notes of earthy bruised yellow orchard fruit, waxy lemon peel, savoury pithy grapefruit and crushed minerals fill the nose. Broad yet taut, fresh, intense and fantastically focused, the flavours are joined by white peach, pear puree, lanolin, wet stone minerality, lemon thyme and a hint of dried guava roll on the finish. Tightly wound but plenty more to come. Drink 2028 to 2040+.

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

Special neck tag on the Skurfberg commemorating vineyard owner Basie van Lill.

“The 2023 Mev. Kirsten displays limey, citrus and melba toast aromas being coated by a fresher aspect that spills over into pear skin and green apple pulp freshness that continues. The vintage’s trademark across all the Chenin Blanc vineyards is that we yielded full wines with beaming acidity and linear finishes. As a result, this is one of the more restrained vintages in character with incredible complexity. As always, the wine has a substantial volume and viscosity.” – Eben Sadie

Sadie Family Wines Die Distriksreeks Mev Kirsten 2023, 14% Abv.

The aromatics are packed with lemon and lime peel, green apple, dried green baking herbs, wet granite minerality and a hint of crunchy yellow peach. Full, rich, round and textural, the concentration is punchy, fabulously intense with a prickly acidity together with notes of quince, yellow apple, and a gentle herby fynbos finish. Simply superb. Drink from 2028 to 2040+.

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

“The 2023 Skerpioen displays the usual limey and citrus flavours associated with the vineyard. This wine’s distinctive saline qualities, salty taste, and minerality are again prominent. The Chenin and Palomino field blend is very stable annually in its expression. The tannins and the acidity are slightly softer than in the last two vintages, and this vintage could be savoured earlier as the balance and mouthfeel are already very balanced.” – Eben Sadie

Sadie Family Wines Die Distriksreeks Skerpioen 2023, 13% Abv.

Taut, pristine and crystalline, this is a next level, top drawer Skerpioen release with notes of wet slate, rain on granite, over pear and white citrus nuances. The palate echoes the nose, beautifully crystalline and pure, vibrantly fresh and precise with taut linear acids, a glassy texture, and a long intense saline stony finish. Wow! Drink from 2026 to 2036+.

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

“This 2023 ‘T Voetpad displays limey, cordial, and citrus aspects with a racy entry point. The wine is firm and tightly coiled up, and it seems it is almost not ready to talk to us yet! It needs so much time. This vintage field blend is in perfect harmony, but we believe this will become one of the most age-worthy proponents. The wine is incredibly balanced and compact. We are looking forward to trying it again in 4 to 20 years to see where its development takes it.” – Eben Sadie

Sadie Family Wines Die Distriksreeks ‘T Voetpad 2023, 13.5% Abv.

A rich nuanced aromatics with plenty of wet straw notes, dried herbs, intense fynbos with a dusting of tea leaf dust. Medium to full bodied on the palate, deliciously joined up and harmonious, glycerol and fresh with tangerine, yellow peach and hints of yellow grapefruit on the long finish. A gastronomic marvel. Drink from 2028 to 2040+.

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

“2023 Kokerboom displays the typical waxy, lanolin characters often associated with Semillon. For the second year running, we had very little rain in the Citrusdal Mountains, and the vineyard was in a stressful environment throughout the growing season. We opted again to pick the vineyard slightly earlier than what we naturally would be inclined to, and the wine still yielded 13,8% alcohol; notwithstanding its fresh appearance, it is mammoth wine. The tannins, acidity, overall texture, and volume in the wine are incredible, and we are in awe of the power of this terroir.” – Eben Sadie

Sadie Family Wines Die Distriksreeks Kokerboom 2023, 13.8% Abv.

A lovely expressive green apple and stemy aromatics with stalk spice, green herbs, thyme, sweet lemon, and delicious fynbos spice. Full and seductive on the palate, this is rich, intense and textured with herbs and spice, honied fig and apple puree.

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

The Sadie Family Wines are imported into the UK by FMV / Berry Bros & Rudd.

Alheit Vineyards Huilkrans Old Vine Chenin Blanc 2022 Shows All the Markings of a Legendary Wine in the Making…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

In the fine wine world, it is certainly very rare for any new producer to achieve cult status almost immediately, but Chris and Suzaan Alheit’s first vintage of Cartology in 2011 brought them unexpected fame almost over night after Neal Martin bestowed this now legendary wine with a 96/100 point score. Ever since this maiden release, Alheit Vineyards has continued to become one of the most tightly allocated and highly sought-after South African wine names on the international market.

Situated 5 hours drive from their own cellar in the Hemel-en-Aarde, the dry farmed old bushvines growing on red sand over red clay produce wines marked by bristling acidity and clarity of flavour, earthy minerality and natural power. “Every vintage reaffirms the extraordinary properties of this landscape,” says Chris Alheit. The Skurfberg vineyard area is now cemented as one of the Cape’s most extraordinary winegrowing areas and Chris works with two farms here: The ungrafted Chenin Blanc bushvines growing at 540 metres above sea-level on Arbeidseind farm producing the wine called Magnetic North. The Oudam farm is close by, a little lower down at 450 metres above sea-level, and produces Huilkrans. Both farms also contribute Chenin Blanc grapes to Alheit’s Cartology white blend.

Alheit Vineyards Huilkrans Old Vine Chenin Blanc 2022, WO Citrusdal Mountain, Olifants Rivier, 13% Abv.

Made from 35 to 55 year old vines planted on deep orange sand over gravel and clay yields a profound expression of Chenin Blanc displaying complex notes of wet slate minerality, salted nectarines, white peach, dried herbs, fresh hay and smoky fynbos hints. This is a very serious white wine with an imposing presence, where the glycerol palate whispers sublime class. The palate depth and breadth is simply astounding, reassuringly rich and tangy with all the freshness and tension you’d expect with a beguiling intensity and length of pear purée and Poire William nuances. Tantalisingly austere and saline with fruit reserve, a mineral focus with a spicy, wet river pebble liquid minerality, the texture is dream-like, silky, sultry, and elegantly persistent. A Grand Cru wine in every sense of the word! A real stunner. Drink from release and over the next 20+ years.

(Wine Safari Score: 98/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

The Alheit Vineyard wines are imported into the UK by merchant Dreyfus Ashby, where the wines are available on strict allocations to trade.

The Ups and Downs of Great Sauvignon Blanc – Tasting the Thorne & Daughters Snakes & Ladders 2019…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

Made from fruit sourced from another Skurfberg vineyard owned by grower Basie van Lill, this Sauvignon Blanc vineyard planted in 1997 used to be sold off to a co-operative winery before John Seccombe secured the fruit for his maiden vintage of the Thorne & Daughters Snakes & Ladders Sauvignon Blanc.

Made from tiny yields of around 2.2 tons per hectare, the grapes were whole bunch pressed and fermented with wild yeast in mix of 225 and 600 litre old oak barrels where the wines remain on their gross lees for 9-10 months before blending and bottling. John Seccombe favours malolactic fermentation over early additions of sulphur dioxide, and the wines only see a first addition of SO2 in the early winter as they look for wines that show tension without losing their suppleness and core, and wines that will reward time in the cellar. The finished wines were bottled unfined.

John Seccombe succinctly sums up… “My natural inclination was to have little interest in working with Sauvignon Blanc, but seeing the vineyard and the soils, I felt compelled to work with it.”

Thorne & Daughters Snakes & Ladders 2019, WO Citrusdal Mountain, 13.5% Abv.

From the first sniff, you know this is something special in the glass showing a beautifully complex nose of lemon grass, lime peel, white citrus and black currant leaf, crunchy white pear and subtle hints of bergamot. The palate is equally unique and utterly mesmerising showing a nervy steely liquid mineral core, oyster shell water and West Coast sea breeze nuances, a grassy sappy textural wood spice intensity and a fabulously tart complex finish with subtle hints of granadilla, naartjie peel and briney rock salt. Not really like any other Sauvignon Blanc on the South African market. Drink now to 2026+.

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

Now distributed in the UK market by Liberty Wines.

Wine Safari Cellar Notes – Revisiting the Sadie Family Old Vine Series Skurfberg Chenin Blanc 2012…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ 1 Comment

I recently watched another zoom interview with Eben Sadie after his new 2019 vintage releases and it became crystal clear that he has now officially joined the exclusive global ranks of iconic wine producers who don’t actually have to “sell” their wines but merely allocate them on a spreadsheet, thus joining the likes of Coche-Dury, Romanee Conti, JL Chave, Thierry Allemande etc., as one of the most sought after producers in the world.

But with this fame comes the added clamour from customers to drink his wines on release, highlighting and indeed exacerbating one of Eben’s greatest disappointments – that not enough people cellar his wines long enough to allow them to reach their true drinking potential. So, with the recent 2019 Skurfberg Chenin Blanc garnering a lofty 100 points from Tim Atkin MW in his recent South Africa 2020 report, I thought I’d revisit an older vintage of this iconic wine to check on its evolution.

Made from unirrigated parcels of old bush vines planted between 1940 and 1955 on decomposed sandstone in the Oliphants River Region, these knarled dry grown old vines struggle to survive with only the sparse local rainfall to rely on. But it is precisely this struggle that makes these old vines produce such sumptuously expressive grapes. So if you have the ability to cellar any wines, save some of your allocation and follow Eben’s advice.

Sadie Family Wines Old Vine Series Skurfberg Chenin Blanc 2012, WO Olifantsrivier, 14.5% Abv.

Drunk over 3 nights, just incredible to see this wine slowly unwind and unfurl over time. At its height of expressiveness, the bouquet positively bursts forth with lemon and lime marmalade, tangerine peel zest, pressed oranges, sweet dried herbs, honeysuckle, nougat and a fantastically expressive granitic mineral under vein. The breadth, depth and complexity of flavour on the palate is just mind boggling, with multiple layers of lime preserve, caramelised figs, grapefruit jelly and an intense finish of lemon cream biscuits and spicy, pithy gravelly minerality punctuated by a final zippy acid reprise. A wine that encapsulates perfectly why Eben Sadie’s wines are so sought after the world over! Start drinking this one now but certainly no rush. A true white icon wine for a new generation of drinkers.

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

A Towering South Africa Chenin Blanc Good Enough to Bring Tears to Your Eyes – Tasting the Huilkrans 2017 from Alheit Family Wines…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ 3 Comments

This is the first vintage that Chris Alheit has bottled something from the Oudam farm as a stand-alone wine.  Chris has been working with the Visser family since 2011 and has been planning this wine since 2015.  They chose the name Huilkrans, the name of a cliff on the farm that weeps when it rains.  Since the untimely passing of the owner’s son Kallie last year in 2017, the name now has an unintended double meaning. Even so, they’ve elected to keep it unchanged.

Chris Believes this wine is absolutely thrilling. Despite the excellent form of Magnetic North, Huilkrans might well be his best wine of the 2017 vintage? This is benchmark Skurfberg Chenin Blanc loaded with pithy minerality, charged with electric energy and is drenched with citrus and vibrant acidity. You can expect this to be impossibly rare and collectable from the moment it is released. So act quick!

Alheit Family Wines Huilkrans Chenin Blanc 2017, Citrusdal, 14.2 Abv.

Made from a vineyard on the Skurfberg from 42 and 32 year old Chenin Blanc plantings owned by the Visser family. This young nervy Chenin shows a wonderful melange of pure minerality, a granitic heart, wet hay, grated apple, yellow citrus, white peach and crunchy green pear with subtle hints of orange blossom, tangerine and dried herb spice adding extra backing complexity. Incredible harmony and balance, this wine has a very precise, polished textural focus but piercing concentration, crystalline acids and a profound liquid mineral depth. A thought provoking wine in so many ways, expertly delivered by Chris Alheit. This is Grand Cru in all but name and certainly ranks among the top Chenin Blancs ever produced in South Africa. Drink now until 2035+

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

Tasting Eben Sadie’s Old Vine Series Skurfberg 2013 Chenin Blanc…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

Last week I visited Eben Sadie’s new winery next to Lammershoek. What an amazingly impressive spot on the Paardeberg. Despite the water shortages and attempted sand mining, the new cellar space (combined with a beautiful homestead on the hill) should all contribute to yet more increases in focus and wine quality.


Sitting in London 2 days later, with spring time weather drawing me into the garden to dust off my BBQ, I felt I had to open one of Eben’s finest, and one of my favourites… the Iconic Skurfberg Old Vine Series.

Dinner with Eben at the Roundstone Farm of Chris and Andrea Mullineux shortly after receiving his Master of Wine Winemakers’ Winemaker Award

Made from unirrigated parcels of old bush vines planted between 1940 and 1955 on decomposed sandstone in the Oliphants River Region, these knarled old vines struggle to survive with only the sparse local rainfall to rely on. But it is precisely this struggle that makes these old vines produce sumptuous grapes that perhaps some bird may eat and then propagate elsewhere… or so the natural selection idea goes.

Tasting Note: Sadie Family Old Vines Skurfberg Chenin Blanc 2013, 13.5 Abv.

Made from pure Chenin Blanc, this wine reaches levels of complexity and intensity normally only white blends from SA can hope to achieve. The nose is dusty and slatey, leaving the fruit nuances to fight through the minerality. Plenty of dry citrus peel, nectarine skins, crunchy white peaches and sweet pear blossom. The palate is taught yet textural, saline, citric and bright. The palate is laden with dusty white citrus, honey suckle, with finely balanced breadth and depth. Tantalising cassis leaf, yellow crab apple and crunchy white peaches dominate a long, vibrant, fresh finish. The 2013 is slightly more overt and fleshy than the taught 2012 I drank with Eben at the Adi Badenhorst Oesaf last week, but still boasts amazing concentration and classism that should allow this wine to age gracefully for 20+ years. An epic expression of Chenin!

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