(2024) Kleine Zalze is one of the bigger names in Stellenbosch, producing a whole range of Chenin Blanc wines, so if this is the one you want, check the label before buying. From 35-year-old bush vines in two vineyards, it had 24 hours skin contact then was pressed to a combination of older French oak barrels and terracotta amphora. The nose has plenty of ripe, vanilla-touched apple, but there's a stone-fruit, apricot and yellow plum deeper note too. In the mouth a generous texture has a bit of fat and weight giving good mouthfeel, the fruit stays this side of exotic, and the barrel adds nothing more than a whisper of creaminess. Quite long and rather satisfying Chenin. Watch my full video review for more details.
(2024) Matured on the lees for 30 months, this is 30% Pinot Noir, 70 % Chardonnay, disgorged March 2021. It has "a small amount of dosage," added. There's a richness and robust yeastiness on the nose, truffle and earthy aromas into orchard fruits. The palate has a creaminess to the mousse and flavours that are citrussy and direct, lemons and sharp English apples but the picture softened by the leesy, lightly nutty notes from the long lees ageing.
(2024) The Blend here is 35% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay and 5% Pinot Meunier, plus 30% Pinotage. It's an 'assemblage' with 2% made as a Pinot Noir red wine. It was bottled in 2018 and disgorged in March 2021 with residual sugar of 9.2g/l. Nicely meaty and yeasty on the nose, there's an umami aspect to small red berries. In the mouth the mousse is quite luxurious. There's a crispness with the zippy citrus acid core here, but that redcurrant and cranberry fruit character and hints of spice and meatiness gives mouthfeel and richness.
(2024) There's 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc in the blend here, which spent 18 months in French oak barrels, 20% new. It is Fairtrade accredited meaning farm workers receive a fair wage and good living conditions. Darkly hued in colour and aroma, plum and clove-spiced, it has an almost mulled wine-like character. A little touch of olive. In the mouth there's plenty of sweet bramble and blackcurrant fruit. I's a savoury wine this, the oak adding and earthy and charry background, but the acidity is fresh and the tannins add a rustic grip that gives it more savoury and food-friendly appeal.
(2023) The Fairtrade certification assures you farm workers are treated well at Vergelegen’s estate, this Sauvignon Blanc from multiple carefully selected blocks, each parcel vinified separately before blending. It's a very expressive wine, with hallmark elderflower thiols, yes, a little of that 'cat's pee on a gooseberry bush' character, and plenty of tropical, exotic fruit. In the mouth it continues its sensory journey, flooding the palate with both mango/nectarine fruit ripeness and a blast of citrus cut by grassiness to give a streaking grip and freshness to the finish. If the super-charged Sauvignon style appeals to you, this delivers in spades.
(2023) South Africa's most planted white wine grape, Chenin Blanc, is being treated many different ways by the Cape's winemakers. In this case, barrel fermentation and ageing in French oak and fermentation with wild yeasts gives a rich, intense rendition of the variety. There is so much creamy, nutty, toasty oak, but alongside that are very ethereal floral and exotic notes, plus peachy fruit, giving a quite complex aromatic appeal. In the mouth the wine is powerful, with 14% alcohol, and a concentrated palate that is limey and intense, the nutty and buttery oak set against fruit and adequate acidity to balance. Watch the video for more information and food-matching ideas.
(2023) A very careful selection of the best Grenache and Syrah is aged 12 months in barrel. At that point a second selection is made based on barrel samples, and the best goes forward for 12 more months in oak to be bottled as The Gypsy. It has a wonderful garrigue nose, strewn with herbs, wild flowers and crunchy red and black fruit notes. On the palate there is a meatiness and dark spiciness, a depth of fruit and chocolaty tannin, the balance lovely into a long finish that also suggests cellaring potential.
(2023) Botrytis-affected Chenin Blanc, this is luscious and fully sweet with 200g/l of residual sugar. After being fermented and aged in all new 400-litre French oak barrels the nose does show some toast and creamy, nutty warmth, but its mostly about honeyed apricot and butterscotch. Gorgeous palate, thick and luxurious, fruit moving into a tropical spectrum, but the key here is the limey intensity of the acidity to balance. Price for a half bottle.
(2023) Yes, a 22-year-old wine that Ken generously opened. Such a sweet mid palate, with acid still just beautifully pitched, pure spicy tannins and has that meaty, almost gamy edge. Touches of tobacco and wonderfully tangy orange acidity. Very good and in perfect drinking condition. Not available retail in the UK at time of review.
(2023) Another from Ken's experimental 'Misfits' range this is 2015 vintage Pinto Noir. It spent 12 months in second-fill French oak 300-litre barrels. So fragrant, sweet, and minty, what a glorious, ripe, and chocolaty wine, so much weight and suppleness, not leathery, but smooth and dense, but never lacking fragrance. Superb, but not available in the UK at time of review.
