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.

Enjoyed this article?

Subscribe and never miss a post again.

Loading

Org de Rac’s Verdelho Beauty

 

For anyone who has visited the magic green island of Madeira, the mere thought of the word Verdelho leads one to stop in your tracks and think of mile-high mountains, an endless flat ocean and cellars filled with ancient barrels of richly scented wine. For it is the cooked wines of the island that have made this grape the stuff of legend. And just like it is difficult to think of a real cigar coming outside of Cuba or a slice of springbok biltong not originating from the dry plains of the Karoo, talking of Verdelho outside of Madeira tends to end in an area of abrupt nowhere-ness.

Continue reading

Enjoyed this article?

Subscribe and never miss a post again.







Loading

Born to be Great: The Swartland Sadies

A winemaker’s confidence comes effortlessly if it is earned. During a recent presentation of the new vintages from David & Nadia, the ease David Sadie showed in his own skin bordered on the edge of audaciousness for such a young man and relative newcomer to the South African wine scene. Firm, steady voice seamlessly jumping between English and Afrikaans. A no-nonsense and pared-down description of the vineyards and earth from which he and wife Nadia make their wines, and how they make it. Not a moment’s hesitation shown during question time, steering curve-balls to fine-leg and without an iota of doubt in his answers.

Continue reading

Enjoyed this article?

Subscribe and never miss a post again.







Loading

Swartland Organic Org de Rac Showing its Class

I first met Frank Meaker in one of the coldest winters Paris has ever experienced. It was 1985, the weather so cold that the Five Nations rugby match between France and Scotland, which had drawn us to meet up in the City of Light, was cancelled as the Parc des Princes’s turf had frozen solid, making play unsafe and not conducive to avoiding cracked skulls and crushed bones.

Continue reading

Enjoyed this article?

Subscribe and never miss a post again.







Loading

Syrah in the Lion’s Den

It was good getting some decent wine down the hatch, I tell you that. For the festive season was pretty much a blur of copious amounts of craft beer, ice-cold Black Velvets and too many of my handmade Dry Martinis, the latter of which I happen to be a master in their creating.

Continue reading

Enjoyed this article?

Subscribe and never miss a post again.







Loading

Portugal Meets the Black Land of Great Whites

I was looking at a stuffed wild cat when the morning’s first sip of vermouth was taken. Like the cat, the vermouth was Adi Badenhorst’s, he of the big hair and short, stocky Swartland swagger. The sun was bright, and a few white spring flowers had appeared in the view from Adi’s Kalmoesfontein spread of farmland, which was broad and wide and green. No “swart” (black) in this land, unless you include beaming faces of the smiling workers ambling past.

Adi Badenhorst
Adi Badenhorst

Continue reading

Enjoyed this article?

Subscribe and never miss a post again.







Loading

Pleasures of Being Savage

Duncan-image-399x600

I was chasing salted squid, eating baby pigs and talking to jaded fado songstresses when I missed the party. Well, one of them.

The one I was sorry to have slipped-up on was the maiden launch of two wines in the solo portfolio of Duncan Savage, also known as Cape Point Duncan. You know the dude I am referring to: the eternally boyish winemaker, he of the disarming smile and manicured facial hair who single-handedly turned Cape Point Vineyards into a South African icon winery in less than a decade.

Continue reading

Enjoyed this article?

Subscribe and never miss a post again.







Loading

Cape Wine 2012 in a Rush

 

Uma Thurman shows that a Merlot tasting can get messy.

The Bride had just sliced the head off her second masked Yakuza gangster when it hit me: what had really just happened over the past few days? Here I was, sprawled on the futon watching Kill Bill Volume 1, lulled by a warm comatose feeling of exhaustion and satisfied post-hectic workweek euphoria.

What a week, I thought looking at the screen as The Bride, aka Uma Thurman, drove a nail through the head of a Japanese schoolgirl.

Continue reading

Enjoyed this article?

Subscribe and never miss a post again.







Loading

Stellenbosch’s One Grape Question

Stellenbosch is, and always will be, the greatest red wine producing region in South Africa. Why? Same reason that Hawaii has great pipeline, Germans make good cars and Chelsea will win the Champions League: because God intended it that way.

Continue reading

Enjoyed this article?

Subscribe and never miss a post again.







Loading