Somewhere in heaven, someone looked down on the world and its vineyards, and on the blessed folk making wine. And decided, among others, that if there were two grape varieties made to come together, to unite, to embrace themselves for improving things down below on earth by making a wonderful white wine, as the world deserves, then these two grapes are Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon.
So, this inspiration was sent down to earth, entering – cautiously and subtly – the minds and the souls of the people making wine, and this moment of light was grabbed by winemakers in a place not associated with wines of the white kind. Bordeaux in France was always the primary region for momentous red wines, supple and powerful with muscular tannins and backbones moving with a balletic grace. Some 85% of Bordeaux are dedicated to red wines, and for this it became renowned through the world, although there have always been some vineyards bearing white grapes, of which Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon are two.
Fortunately, the blending of cultivars had always sat favourable in the minds of Bordeaux wine men, as proven by their Cabernet Sauvignon-led blended wines on the Left Bank, and the richly fruited Merlot-blends on the Right. Thus, it came to pass that Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon were woven together, the wise men of Bordeaux knowing that the blisteringly bracing zest of the former variety would be deepened, broadened, fattened by the fuller veil of the Sémillon. And so, the Bordeaux white wines were born, offering a further tier of excellence to the wines of that region, and those of France as well as the world we know.
In another part of this world, like France a place of classic wines, inspiration was drawn from the Bordeaux brothers, and in the Cape of South Africa, too, the making of white wines of this kind was practised, as it is today, resulting in alluring white wines that can be seen as being of the country’s finest. These balanced, accurate mergers of Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon, usually involving maturation in oak barrels, have produced some of the nation’s best wines, although the wine market is for them not an easy place, with consumers in this energetic, frenetic country preferring stark simplicity in white wines bottled under their specific varieties instead, of the misty, beguiling haze of blended grapes.
But fortunately, this has not prevented wineries and their residing winemakers to continue crafting such white blends, and still the results point to the immaculate nature attainable by wines bringing together Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon.
For those of us appreciating this inspired dedication to these elixirs, it is a privilege to still have an abundance of richness to select from, as I was reminded recently when visiting the Chamonix Estate in Franschhoek where, through the stone-fruited and mineral Chardonnays and the elegantly laced Pinot Noir, there is the Chamonix Premier White Reserve, vintage 2022, which be a blend of Sauvignon Blanc (64%) and Sémillon (36%).
The Chamonix vineyards from which the respective grapes come, reach to the heavens at 400m above sea-level, the vines set on rocky earth, steep in incline, looking down upon the town of the French Huguenots, by the name of Franschhoek. It is elegantly rugged wine country, here, the vines ending in a ridge of floral wilderness lying before a glorious gunmetal-grey mountain.
As the Premier White Reserve is poured coolly into the glass, I immediately detect a purity of colour, pale-straw yellow reminiscent of Van Gogh’s wheatfields, and when the glass is lifted to the sky, this holds a similar exquisite Vincent-painted blue.
I am told that, indeed, purity lies at the forefront of this wine’s nature. Beginning with stringent berry-selecting at harvest and whole-bunch pressing from where the juice flows clean and clear.
Though born to bond in one wine, the Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon components are vinified separately so as to maintain as much of each variety’s character and personality as possible. For this, the wines are fermented and aged in wood casks, maturing for 12 months. Only then do the two distinct wines embrace each other as the cellarmaster composes the blend into a singular sum of its parts, sending it into bottle and out in the grateful world.
Being a 2022 vintage, the wine has had time to settle, the two varieties having ample opportunity to form the special kinship of familiarity. And as this blend proves, Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon were, seemingly, made for one another.
On the nose there is murmur, a whisper of confident fragility. White flowers, dried and left within the pages of a heavy book. Aromas of chalk and juniper are evident, gentle and expectation-filling, yet subtle in their perfumed offering.
The entry to the palate is precise, subtle and extreme in the manicured sophistication, glorious traits to recognise in something such as wine, which is a natural thing. At first, a slight elevation is evident on the flavour-profile as its eager Sauvignon Blanc element requests for attention, but this is quickly subdued as the Sémillon character reins things in, suppressing any forthright elements of thiols and pyrazine.
And then it lies on the mid-palate in a mound of completeness offering both clarity and lucidity along with discernible textural presence and layer-upon-layer of unmasked flavours. Green fig and Packham pear lead the fruitier elements, along with a warm sunny clod of honeycomb, sans overt sweetness. There is, too, an edge of cantaloupe, sliced and cold, as well as long runs of nectar of the kind we as kids sucked from the trellised jasmine flowers, all those years ago.
With Sémillon being present, a deeper layer of waxiness is expected, but its lacking is a blessing, too. Yes, this variety is present in the compounding of flavours and the deepening of the palate presence, but it does so without suppressing the overall limpidity or shading the colours of taste that have been sketched with such remarkable bright clarity that, when drinking this wine, one can see right up to the heavens from where its inspiration has come. And been taken.
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