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The Herald
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald
Names such as Conqueror, Tenacious, Fortitude and Longevity, say it all
How often are we told when we are struggling that tough times build character, that one needs to 'dig deep' to find the inner strength to conquer adversity? If the Perdeberg vineyard and cellar teams were the type to talk to plants, I'd bet that's what they'd be whispering daily to their dry land vineyards at the foot of the Paardeberg mountain in Paarl. Most of the winery's more than 3,000ha of vineyards in Paarl and over the mountain in the Swartland are dry land, or unirrigated, and the cream of the crop is found in the premium Dry Land Collection, showcasing the distinctive character that develops when vines overcome difficult growing conditions. Watered only by rainfall, in a fairly dry region, the vines must literally dig deep to establish themselves and find groundwater. The combination of the testing terroir and having survived decades of nature's cycles — some of the vines for the Dry Land Collection are more than 35 years old, with certified heritage status — delivers rewards in small berries with exceptional concentration of flavour and colour, producing wines of complexity and depth, balanced with freshness. No wonder then that wines in the Perdeberg Dry Land Collection have names like Conqueror (cabernet sauvignon), Resolve (pinotage), Tenacious (shiraz), and the chenin blanc dessert wines Fortitude and Longevity. Two of the Dry Land Collection wines recently topped the 2025 Winemag Prescient Chenin Blanc & Cape White Blend Report, with the 2024 Courageous Barrel Fermented Chenin Blanc named best chenin blanc and Rossouw's Heritage 2023 the top-scoring Cape white blend. For its passion for conserving and working with its heritage vines in wines like these, Perdeberg won the Old Vine Producer trophy at the International Wine & Spirits Competition in 2024. Their highlighting of the potential of older vines and the character produced from dry land vineyards no doubt also contributed to Perdeberg being named 2024 Producer Cellar of the Year in UK Master of Wine Tim Atkin's respected annual SA Special Report. Perdeberg cellar master Albertus Louw explains that grapes for the Dry Land Collection wines are selected from individual vines in specific vineyards, and made in a new world style with ample fruit and structure. For those matured in oak, the focus is on seamless integration of fruit and wood so that oak influence is subtle and the wines pleasurably drinkable on their own on release, but also great with food, and ageable. This comes through clearly in two of the Dry Land Collection white wines tasted recently, both of which kept the free-run juice in contact with the skins for a couple of hours after pressing and were matured on the yeasty lees in barrel to varying extents — the winemaking techniques creating wines with texture and complexity finely balanced with clean fruit purity and fresh acidity. Courageous Barrel-Fermented Chenin Blanc 2024 (R200), aged in mostly older oak barrels for 11 months, shows how chenin's typical crunchy pineapple shifts when the wine is wooded to a mellower, deeper fruit, with caramelised edges to the sweetness, as if it's been grilled on a cast iron pan or braai with a sprinkling of brown sugar. (I've done this, it's delicious!) Opening with heady aromas of frangipani, citrus, pear and pineapple, the wine moves into flavours of citrus, lychee and vanilla, honey and nuts, the ripe golden yellow notes lifted by zesty citrus and the crunch of a granny smith apple, with clean acidity and crisp finish. Try it with a mild but aromatic chicken curry. Perdeberg Dry Land Collection Rossouw's Heritage 2023 (R200) makes one question why white blends are such a tough sell to SA consumers, because it delivers the qualities that we love in red blends — the balance and complexity, the interplay of flavours, structure and texture that comes from uniting the distinct qualities of different grapes in one happy marriage. This is a blend of chenin blanc (63%), with grenache blanc, verdelho and viognier in roughly equal shares, with half the blend matured in oak for 10 months followed by six months to mature and integrate in bottle. Lightly fragrant with citrus, lychee, pears and floral notes that move into the palate, rounded out with passion fruit and vanilla, the flavours unfurl in layers with each sip, with clean freshness and purity of flavour. The wine is crisp and lively, but with depth, body and texture; doesn't demand food but would be great with grilled fish, braaied chicken or a lightly creamy pasta dish. If struggle is character-building, long may it continue. The Herald
Times
09-05-2025
- General
- Times
South Africa's most exciting wines, vineyards and vintners
They called it a revolution. No walls were breached or regimes toppled, and the liquid spilt wasn't blood, it was red wine. But what red wine… In the Noughties a bunch of young winemakers became enthused by the amazingly varied soils and altitudes of the Swartland, a large, hot swathe of South Africa's hinterland 45 minutes north of Cape Town. They found hitherto neglected vineyards (and planted others), fermented the grapes with naturally occurring yeasts and intervened as little as possible. The wines were so gorgeous that many people, like me, who had loved South African whites but few reds, were obliged to change their minds. And changing hearts and minds is, surely, the point of a revolution. South Africa has been producing wine since the 1650s, but initially only in Constantia and Stellenbosch. By the time political isolation ended with apartheid, in the early 1990s, the co-operatives that had made more than 90 per cent of the country's wine, and focused primarily on quantity, were losing their power and quality-focused private wineries were appearing. In 1999 the Swartland Revolution began when Eben Sadie set up Sadie Family Wines amid a sea of wheat. Soon he had company: young adventurers who, like him, had learnt from older makers and were ready to try doing things differently. Adi Badenhorst, white-bearded but boyish, has the energy and charm you need to create a bohemian oasis (complete with pizza oven on the shady veranda) in a place that looked, when he arrived, 'like the Gobi Desert'. His glorious wines include single-vineyard cinsaults and Raaigras, from the country's oldest grenache plot, which has a lovely violet note and a freshness that comes, he says, from the granite soils: 'Grenache is one of those grapes that listens to where it's planted.' • This article contains affiliate links that can earn us revenue The David & Nadia vineyard nearby is a very different operation: David Sadie (no relation) produces about 55,000 bottles in a winery the size of a pea. He has, as yet, no vineyards of his own. But judging from his citrus-pure, moreish chenin blancs and headily perfumed grenache-syrah blend, Elpidios, the work he puts into buying top-quality grapes is paying off. Today there are about 30 wineries in the Swartland. Prices aren't the issue here, thanks to the weak rand — a top wine can cost about £60, with some under £30. But quantities are tiny. Most vines are untrellised, which allows the leaves to shade the fruit from the brutal sun, and these tousled bush vines are an important part of the region's wild beauty. Yet its wines can be as sophisticated as the outstanding chenin and syrah trios by Chris and Andrea Mullineux, which showcase the different Swartland soils: iron, schist and (my favourite) granite, the red an elegant blend of black tea and red fruit. Before heading further inland to Tulbagh, I dropped in on Callie Louw (although 'dropping in' hardly describes bumping miles up a dusty track). Louw's vines are bushier, the soil beneath them drier and the man who somehow farms them organically even more stubborn than his fellow revolutionaries. Porseleinberg is part of the Boekenhoutskloof group, and much of what Louw grows is for The Chocolate Block, a hugely popular Swartland blend. Porseleinberg itself is a superb single-vineyard syrah, its tobacco-leaf and blackberry notes a vindication of everything Louw believes about how to grow grapes on a wind-battered hillside. • Swap Stellenbosch for this underrated South African wine region At first sight, the perfect lawns and large-format artworks of the estate where Rudiger Gretschel makes Krone premium sparkling seem as different from Porseleinberg as tiny-production syrah is from South Africa's premium fizz. But Gretschel is just as serious about his amphora-aged and supremely elegant single-site blanc de blancs as Louw is about syrah. As for a wild element: Gretschel drives me north, up into the Citrusdal mountains, to his property, Swartberg Wingerde, which is so remote he has to deliver weekly groceries to his workers. He shows me bush vines planted in deep sand, which seems an unlikely home for them. But his Holism Grenache, with its notes of plum, spice and white pepper, is exceptional. It is, I realise, as I look out across these wild slopes towards the Atlantic, something more: revolutionary. Abercrombie & Kent can organise tailor-made trips to South Africa's wine country, including Swartland, By Jane MacQuitty Dazzling prestige blanc de blancs chardonnay champagne with taut, intense citrus-blossom and almond elegance.£148, Glorious greeny-gold, steely, stony chablis with a long lemony finish. A real charmer from northern Burgundy.£29.95, Magnificent magnum from a tip-top walled vineyard, with lots of tangy umami and mineral oomph.£255, Thrilling white burgundy from century-old vines, with soft, honeyed, floral, yellow-apple elegance.£85, Bright and beautiful Aussie chardonnay bursting with mouthwateringly herbaceous, zingy, flinty fruit.£63.95,
