Textured, dry and mineral, real weight over freshness
Ageing
5–15 years
Serving
11–13 °C
Chenin Blanc is South Africa's most-planted grape and its true signature, and nowhere does it better than the Swartland, where old, gnarled, unirrigated bush vines on granite and shale give wines of startling intensity and texture. Dry, mineral and quietly powerful, they are the flagship of the country's wine revolution.
A band of young growers rediscovered these dry-farmed old vineyards in the 2000s and, with low-intervention winemaking, remade South Africa's image around them. Swartland Chenin — textured, savoury and ageworthy — is now among the most exciting white wines in the southern hemisphere.