Eben Sadie Sees the Chardonnay Light

As an unapologetic Chardonnay acolyte, I see it as only a good thing that Eben Sadie, arguably the Cape’s most revered Swartland South African winemaker, had turned his deft hand and formidable vinous insight towards the great white grape of Burgundy. I had given up on this upon reading Eben’s musings on Chardonnay, as reported by Andrew Jefford in Decanter, back in 2014.

Andrew, visiting the Cape for the De Wetshof Celebration of Chardonnay, asked Eben why he and his fellow “avant garde” winemakers do not work with Chardonnay?

“You can’t,” replied Eben. “You need limestone; you need 45˚ latitude. The energy, the sun here, the brightness is too much. Some grapes are not meant to move. Robertson’s got the perfect soil, but the altitude’s wrong, the light’s wrong. For me, the two worlds are continental viticulture and Mediterranean. We’ve taken grapes from 45˚ latitude and planted them at 33˚. When you copy, you should at least copy the right thing.”

Whether the light or latitude or Eben’s persuasions have changed over seven years is not known. But his maiden Chardonnay, bottled under the Voëlvry label, was made from the 2021 vintage. Underscoring the extent to which Eben’s Chardonnay mindset had been swung, is the fact that the grapes for Voëlvry were sourced from the altitude and light of Robertson, which – as per the statement to Andrew – represents about as much of an about-turn as a former commie hating American redneck now having arousing thoughts about Vladimir Putin.

But at the end the day one must agree that a great mind is worth little if it cannot be changed.

Voëlvry Robertson Chardonnay 2021, Sadie’s first work with a noble white cultivar, is as fine and accomplished as one could expect from anything coming out of his cellar. Whole-clusters of grapes, driven to the Swartland from a select Robertson vineyard, were squished in a basket-press. Old Burgundian casks – 228 litres – were filled, and then the wine aged for 11 months.

Part of the appeal is its denser, assertive style, a solid step away from the endless seeking of electric minerality and mouth-puckering briskness, as is the case with many Cape Chardonnays. The wine has a discernible palate-density, with the typical Robertson terroir features of nuts and nartjie-peel having to work their way to the surface before being revealed. But these tastes are there, along with a subtle coaxing creaminess, before the slight velcro grip of a fine white wine gently scrapes the mouth as it heads to the finish.

Voëlvry Chardonnay might lack the visceral stony citrus expression of that from Robertson’s Weltevrede, and it does not have the complexity and multi-dimensional grace of a De Wetshof Finesse or The Site. But for a first attempt from Robertson, Voëlvry is showing great promise and should soon join in the lexicon of South African Chardonnay excellence.

Copy that.