Weskus

Sakkie Mouton Releases His New Revenge of the Crayfish Chenin Blanc 2025 From Koekenaap…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

Sakkie Mouton is one of South Africa’s most exciting, low-intervention winemakers, celebrated for putting the rugged and remote West Coast on the global wine map. Based in Vredendal and Koekenaap, Sakkie champions a forgotten, wind-swept terroir shaped by intense Atlantic breezes and sandstone soils. After studying at Elsenburg and traveling the world, he returned home to champion old vines and distinct coastal identities. 

Known for a minimalist, “Weskus” style, his small-production, critically acclaimed wines like the flagship Revenge of the Crayfish Chenin Blanc, are famous for their vibrant acidity, complex textures, and unmistakable coastal maritime salinity. While Sakkie’s personal “wine style” is ever evolving, no two vintages are ever quite the same, with each subsequent release showing his own personal growth and evolution. The 2025 style moves yet again, focusing on texture, mouthfeel and concentration of fruit flavours, making a wine that is arguably one of his most “grown up” yet.

Revenge of the Crayfish 2025, WO Koekenaap, 13.81% Abv. 

Picked slightly later than usual, this 2025 Chenin Blanc reveals an intricate aromatics of white blossoms, white peach, tinned pineapples, green apples over a delicate yet complex array of dried kelp, oyster shell and Weskus maritime sea spray. The first Crayfish cuvee to undergo 100% malolactic fermentation, the palate does feel a little denser, fleshier and slightly less nervy that early editions, but whatever is lost in terms of tart steely austerity, is more than compensated for by a plusher, more harmonious mid-palate texture and balance, built with compact layers of tangy pineapple fruits, apricot, tart yellow plums and green apple cordial hints with a gentle yet assertive salinity on the finish. This is a serious Chenin that exudes a quiet confidence with plenty of the 2025 vintage concentration, illuminating Sakkie’s continued growth and development as an accomplished premium winemaker. Drink on release and over the next 8 to 10+ years. 

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

Sakkie Mouton’s wines are exclusively available in the UK from South African specialist merchant Museum Wines and Wood Winters UK.

Sakkie Mouton Family Wines Dawn of the Salty Tongues Syrah 2024 Rated and Reviewed…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

This is the third red release from Sakkie Mouton, one of the Cape’s most exciting winemaking talents who seems to keep going from strength to strength. With a now well-established quality track record for his crisp, complex, saline white wines from the Weskus, his wines have become incredibly sought after including his red wines.

Simply speaking, you can sell a cultish brand once, maybe twice, but if it doesn’t deliver the quality collectors and connoisseurs expect that’s where it will break down. Sakkie’s followers are however true converts, buying and drinking his wines vintage after vintage, standing as a true testament to the authentic character and ever-increasing quality of his wines.

The Dawn of the Salty Tongues label is a reference to the rise of the West Coast as a new wine region and showcases divers picking grapes under the ocean, which contributes to the “salty” taste of the palate. “Salty Tongues” also happens to be Weskus slang for the rather spicy language some of the local farmers and fishermen are known to use on a regular basis!

Sakkie Mouton Family Wines Dawn of the Salty Tongues Syrah 2024, WO Oliphants Rivier, 12.86% Abv.

2.6g/l RS | 6.1g/l TA | 3.40pH

The Salty Tongues Syrah 2024 is a 100% Syrah red made from grapes sourced from vineyards in Vredendal located 25 kilometres from the West Coast Atlantic Ocean that were picked early morning to preserve freshness before being destemmed, with 30% of whole bunches lining the bottom of the open top fermenters. After fermentation, the wine was aged for 12 months in 500 litre barrels before being bottled unfiltered and unfined. Planted in 1999, these 26-year-old vineyards are starting to yield some incredible quality with striking aromatics of pressed violets and lavender, bramble berries and pomegranate before hints of black cherry, blood oranges, nori seaweed and bloody raw meat develop. This 2024 shows more dry extract, more substance, and more depth of fruit and oak spice than either of the previous two vintages. With incredible elegance, vivacious tangy acids and a silky plush depth, the palate never loses its mouthwatering red and black berry Weskus salinity that gently melts away into a concentrated, intense, piercing finish. This is a beautifully crafted red wine from Sakkie. Drink on release and over the next 8 to 10 years.

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

The Sakkie Mouton Wines are imported into the UK for retail and private clients by South African specialist merchant Museum Wines and for On-trade and Scotland by Wood Winters.

Naude Family Wines Releases the Fourth Vintage of Their Langpad Old Vine Colombard 2023…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

With the never-ending search for new and exciting cultivars in South Africa continuing unabated, presumably it was only a matter of time before the Cape’s vignerons discovered the versatile potential of Old Vine Colombard beyond acting merely as a suitable distillation grape. Being widely planted up the Weskus (West Coast), Ian Naude managed to source some of the most expressive Old Vine fruit planted in 1983 from vineyards near Vredendal. The rest, as they say, is history. 

Now releasing his fourth vintage of Langpad, meaning the ‘long road’, the 2023 from Ian Naude has had some extra time in bottle which is why, perhaps more so than any of the previous three releases, the Langpad bears a striking resemblance to Greece’s Assyrtiko wines with a pronounced phenolic minerality and maritime salinity… though perhaps more in the style of Nemea or mainland Greece’s Assyrtiko expressions rather than those from the volcanic island of Santorini. 

Naude Langpad Old Vine Colombard 2023, WO Cape West Coast, 11.5% Abv.

A vintage renown for its concentration and fruit intensity, the 2023 Langpad Old Vine Colombard is at first quite reticent on the nose, showing aromatics of crushed granite, white flowers, dried herbs, yellow citrus, and waxy yellow apples before more pronounced notes of maritime sea spray, dried kelp and oystershell emerge. The fleshy glycerol concentration is more evident on the palate, that’s cool, crisp, and resplendently pure and fresh with a mouthcoating tangy acidity and complex hints of honeydew melon, pithy green apple and quince jelly. Quite a phenolic and spicy expression of Colombard that finishes with a saline wet stone mineral austerity that makes this white perfect for food matching. Start drink now and over the next 3 to 5 years. 

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

Sakkie Mouton Family Wines New Releases – Tasting the Revenge of the Crayfish Chenin Blanc 2024…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ 2 Comments

The 2024 Revenge of the Crayfish Chenin Blanc was the earliest harvest of this vineyard ever as the region experienced tremendous heatwaves up the West Coast and a generally earlier vintage across the Western Cape. As a result, the 2024 harvest involved and initial earlier pick for freshness and a slightly later pick for ripeness and body. This process might explain the tantalising interplay on the nose and palate between taut, tense, fresh flavours and richer, honied exotic fruit notes, components that marry incredibly well in the final blend to deliver a wine that is a slight departure from Sakkie’s more mineral, saline, pithy, maritime Weskus style. 

The vineyards in Koekenaap are located around 5kms from the ice-cold Atlantic Ocean on well drained Sandstone soils. Grapes were hand harvested early in the morning, then taken to a cold room and cooled down for one night. The next day the grapes were whole bunch pressed in a membrane press, with the juice being taken to a stainless steel tank for natural cold settling. No enzymes were added except for a little sulphur.

Sakkie in his Koekenaap Chenin Blanc vineyard.

Clear juice was racked off the next day into a stainless steel tank and some 500 litre barrels for natural fermentation to start. Fermentation took about 120 days (the longest fermentation time to date). Afterwards, all the finished wine was moved into old 500 litre barrels to age for 12 months on its gross lees before being bottled unfined and unfiltered. This is the first Crayfish that underwent 100% Malolactic Fermentation.

Sakkie Mouton Family Wines Revenge of the Crayfish Chenin Blanc 2024, WO Koekenaap, 13.41% Abv.

3.2g/l RS | 7.7g/l TA | 3.02p

The 2024 Crayfish Chenin Blanc is a very impressive creation boasting a rich, golden bronzed yellow hue in the glass. In this vintage, Sakkie seems to have shifted to a higher gear with a far more elaborate peacock’s tail array of exotic aromatics. Noticeably richer and more intense, there are layers of dried apricot, white peach, pineapple, and green apple with top notes of white blossom and tangerine citrus peel. The pithy pineappley fruit intensity does initially mask some of the maritime salinity and gravelly minerality but linger over your glass a little longer and these Weskus hallmarks eventually reveal themselves. The palate shows incredible depth and explosive intensity, fleshy and broad with lashings of tangy yellow orchard fruits, tart pineapple chunks, peaches in honey, salted caramel, and crystallised green apple on the finish. I don’t know if Sakkie has discovered a few new tricks in the cellar or if the vintage has played into his hands with graceful precision, but I suspect it’s a combination of both. This is undoubtedly a statement wine, a wine that demands attention and then delivers in bucket loads. The slight hint of added exoticism definitely suits Sakkie’s winemaking style! I am simply blown away by this new release! Drink now to 2035+.

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

Sakkie Mouton Family Wines are available from award winning South African specialist merchant Museum Wines.

Sakkie Mouton Family Wines Establishing Its Red Wine Reputation Vintage by Vintage – Tasting Dawn of the Salty Tongues Syrah 2023…  

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ 2 Comments

Sakkie Mouton is now a universally respected young winemaker crafting some incredibly unique terroir driven white wines made from grapes mostly sourced from several barren wind-swept vineyards up the Cape West Coast around Koekenaap and Vredendal. But it was only with his maiden release Dawn of the Salty Tongues Syrah 2022 that he started on his own wine brand’s red wine journey. The name and label references not only the rise of the Weskus as a new respected viticultural area of interest but is also a play on words describing the more “salty language” that some of the West Coast locals are known to use.

With Sakkie’s new Revenge of the Crayfish Chenin Blanc 2024 and his new, third release, Dawn of the Salty Tongues 2024 Syrah about to hit the UK market, I thought it would be a perfect time to revisit his second Syrah release from the 2023 vintage. Once again, this second release is made from 100% Syrah grapes sourced from vines located 25 kilometres from the cold Atlantic Ocean in Vredendal. Sakkie says the 2023 vintage was “a spectacular one on the West Coast, with warm and sunny days and nice cold evenings to help slow the ripening process.” Grapes were picked early in the morning to preserve freshness before being chilled down and destemmed with 30% of whole bunches used in open top fermenters. Fermentation lasted around 2 weeks with pump overs three times per day, with the temperatures kept at a constant 27 degrees C. After completion of fermentation, the wine was aged for 11 months in 500 litre barrels. 

Sakkie Mouton Family Wines Syrah 2023, WO Olifants River, 13.45% Abv. 

2.8 g/l RS | 6.0 g/l TA | 3.47pH

This 100% Syrah shows a deliciously spicy, sappy aromatics with layers of dried herbs, wet leaves, pithy red cherry, spicy dried tobacco leaf, raspberries and a graphite-laden mineral spice. The palate is incredibly sleek and taut but utterly charming, fresh and tangy with a melange of red and black bramble berries, raspberry and sour red plum on the finish. Beautiful whole bunch sapidity, exotically seductive spices with soft polished mineral tannins and a long, tangy finish make this a very drinkable wine with delicacy but also subtle intensity. Another classically leaning Syrah beauty. Drink now to 2035+. 

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

The Winemaking Ingenuity and Excellence of Sakkie Mouton is Ceaseless – Tasting Two Exciting New 2024 Vintage Releases…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ 2 Comments

Every year, I look at the wide array of phenomenal new wines being produced by the next generation of Cape young guns and am simply astounded by the ingenuity, attention to detail and precision these producers are able to conjure up often with bought in fruit parcels acting as their blank canvases. For me, no producer personifies this endless striving for excellence and creativity more than Sakkie Mouton, the Weskus maverick.

The eccentric new duo from Sakkie.

With Sakkie’s Revenge of the Crayfish now an established icon Chenin Blanc in the Cape’s annual new release schedule, I am always left wondering what new tricks Sakkie will pull out of his sleeve as his new vintage vinous treasures are revealed. This year, with the 2024 vintage, he has pushed the boundaries even further with not one but two eccentric new releases… a Piquepoul Blanc and a Lledoner Pelut / Agiorgitiko Rosé blend. I recently received samples of both and had a chance to taste these fascinating, paradigm shifting wines.

Sakkie Mouton Family Wines Piquepoul Blanc 2024, WO Oliphantsrivier, 12.3% Abv.

3.1g/l RS | 7.9g/l TA | 3.31pH 

Produced from Piquepoul vines planted in 2021 on Karoo Sandstone soils 25km from the ocean, the colour shows a deep golden bonze hue with an incredibly enticing crystalline clarity and brightness. On the nose, the aromatics are rich, complex, and exotic as you would expect after two weeks maceration on the skins. There is a seductive perfume of white blossoms before intensely pithy aromas of freshly pealed naartjies, soft waxy orange peel, ripe pineapple chunks and crunchy white peach flow from the glass. There is a faint mineral dustiness and granitic spice lurking alongside hints of green apple, nori seaweed and Sakkie’s signature briney maritime Weskus salinity. The palate is medium bodied and compact in construction with delicious reinforcing tangy lemony acids, hints of tart pineapple, freshly squeezed grapefruit juice and a salty, wet stone minerality on the dry, pithy finish. I love the way Sakkie has managed to coax an extra layer of depth and texture out on the palate from 4 months extended gross lees contact, yet he manages to retain the wines majestic purity, freshness, and piercing salinity effortlessly. This is a far more complex and characterful Piquepoul Blanc than many consumers in Europe will be familiar with from the South of France and its deliciousness is simply off the charts. Enjoy the halo vibrancy of these young vines now on release and over the next 3 to 5 years. 

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

Sakkie Mouton Family Wines Lledoner Pelut / Agiorgitiko Rosé 2024, WO Oliphantsrivier, 12.5% Abv.

7.5g/l RS | 12.5g/l TA | 3.24pH

A alluring bright orange pink colour in the glass, this young vibrant 2024 Rosé displays a dramatic array of aromatics with seductively complex notes of naartjie peel, orange citrus, sea breeze salinity, pink musk candy, Parma violets, Turkish delight and delicate hints of rose petals and crushed limes. In the mouth the wine shows an incredible balance and symmetry, with an intense concentration of oranges and limes, pithy ruby grapefruit, tart strawberry and chalky, stony cranberry nuances on a vibrant, zippy finish. An incredibly enticing, seductive Rosé that displays a mouth-watering moreishness… one sip swiftly inviting another. The delicate red berry and watermelon hints combined with a stony pithiness make this an incredibly food friendly wine. This innovative blend typifies Sakkie Mouton’s style at the moment as he l continues to flex his winemaking genius. Drink now, preferably with some Cape salmon or yellow fin tuna sashimi or any Asian fusion cuisine, and over the next 2 to 4 years.

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

Tasting the Sensational New Sakkie Mouton Family Wines Weskus Wit Versnit (West Coast White Blend) 2023…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

Sakkie Mouton has been at the forefront of experimental winemaking in the Vredendal and Koekenaap region for the past 6+ years producing some of the most enticing premium white and red wine offerings that are clearly inspired and influenced by the rugged West Coast vine growing lifestyle. Through adversity and hardship, comes rays of brilliance, and this new experimental white blend of 80% Old Vine Colombard and 20% Palomino sourced from Vredendal vineyards is another absolute triumph for Sakkie.

Over the past years, Sakkie has been experimenting with a wide range of white varieties from Chenin Blanc to Colombard, Vermentino to Chenel, Palamino to Muscat de Alexandrie, and his last new release, the 2023 Assyrtiko, was another wonderful revelation on his continuing path of experimentation and blending.

Old vine Colombard vineyards in Vredendal.

The usual outlet for Sakkie’s white blend experimentation normally falls under his Full On Misfit cuvee, that has evolved over the years into a beautifully harmonious, complex white expression quite unlike anything else on the market. This is of course part of the whole raison d’etre for so much of Sakkie’s winemaking focus, sourcing grapes in the once fairly obscure Vredendal region, better known in the past for bulk winemaking. The Grape Cavalier Wit Versnit is a delicious new white expression that avid followers of Sakkie’s wines will not want to miss out on.

Sakkie Mouton Family Wines The Grape Cavalier Colombard – Palomino White Blend 2023, WO Vredendal, 11.8% Abv.

This delicious Weskus Wit Versnit (West Coast white blend) is another triumph of terroir from Sakkie Mouton, opening with picante granitic aromatics that are heavily laden with oyster shell, sea breeze salinity and brine over delicate nuances of tangy white citrus, grated lime peel, lemon herbal tea, wet chalk, stem ginger spice and gentle hazelnut undertones. The palate is equally intense and beguiling, delivering a tart, mouthwatering experience tightly interwoven with fresh laser-like acids, another burst of ‘salted lemons after a savoury tequila shot’, freshly cut Granny Smith apples and an invigorating mineral tension that reverberates on the long maritime finish. A really fabulous new creation that has Sakkie Mouton’s signature Weskus winemaking genius written all over it. This appears to be a once-off experimental cuvee from Sakkie as he continues to push the boundaries of experimental winemaking. Decant and drink on release or cellar this beauty for another 5 to 8+ years.

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

The Sakkie Mouton wines are imported into the UK by South African fine wine specialist merchant Museum Wines. The Grape Cavalier retails for circa £37pb.