Chenin has a great future on Waterkloof and this fine wine is testament to that.
The nose is redolent of Manuka honey and yellow pollen. The palate is ripe and creamy with citrus and white peach fruit, a textural minerality, waxy lanolin notes and honey. Lovely palate weight and Vouvray-like body leading to a lingering finish with taut acidity.
Founded by Paul Boutinot in 2004, Waterkloof is a family-owned farm using organic practices. The farm is perched high up on the windswept Schapenberg, overlooking False Bay and The Atlantic Ocean. Living soils, naturally low yields and a long growing season help provide talented Cellarmaster Nadia Barnard with naturally balanced grapes that are imbued with a truly defining sense of origin. Those grapes are then transformed into wine with a minimum of intervention. The resulting wines are fine, inimitable and best enjoyed with food.
Living soils and a natural approach to winemaking means that each of the single-varietal wines in the Circumstance range is truly defined by the circumstances influencing the chosen varietal and vineyard blocks, including: soil, aspect, altitude and vintage. These factors combine to produce low yields, balanced grapes and wines with a true sense of place. The Chenin Blanc is from a windswept, south facing (less sun exposure) block 200-50m above and a mere 2 miles from The Atlantic. Production is a miserly 5 tons per hectare.
Waterkloof follow a traditional, minimalistic approach in their gravitational cellar which means interfering as little as possible with the winemaking process. This allows the flavours prevalent in that specific vineyard to ultimately express themselves in the wine. To achieve this goal, all grapes are whole-bunch pressed, which ensures that juice is extracted in the gentlest way. The juice is then allowed to settle for 24 hours after which it is racked from the settling tank into older
600 litre barrels. They do not inoculate the juice with commercially cultivated yeast but allow the wild yeast prevailing in the vineyard to ferment the juice. The natural fermentation process took 7 months to complete, after which the wine was left on the gross less for a further 3 months. No batonnage, no additions of acid or enzymes during the winemaking process, only a small addition of sulphur as a preservative and a light filtration prior to bottling.
A great partner with fish or try it with an oyster mushroom, rocket salad.
Decanter WWA 2023 Bronze 2021 Vintage
