South Africa: New releases

This comes from a vineyard in Wellington, planted on a hill overlooking a farm called Twyfeling. Pieter was chatting to his mum, and she mentioned that her ancestors had owned this Wellington farm: it was purely by accident that Pieter was now buying grapes from it, and the neighbouring hillsides. So the label shows the hill overlooking seven generations of the Hauptfleisch family - Pieter’s mum’s maiden name. The resulting wine is textured and very impressive, with lots of leesy complexity, and very saline finish. Delicious.

The 2019 Semillon comes from three sites in Franschhoek, from vines planted in 1902, 1936 and 1942. It’s so complex and fresh, with a hint of orange blossom from 3% Muscat from 1902 planted vines. There’s incredible texture here, and a sea-spray tinged finish that lasts an age. Incredible.

The 2020 Phoenix Chenin Blanc comes from a single old vine, organically-farmed vineyard in Paarl, planted with bush Chenin Blanc vines. 70% was vinified in tank, with 30% in barrel (the barrel component was aged at Radford Dale while Sam’s cellar was rebuilt, and hence the wine isn’t labelled organic - Radford Dale isn’t organic). The wine is brilliant. Focussed and textured, with real vibrant energy and an incredibly long finish, it’s not to be missed.