South Africa Annual Tasting Report: A Tale of Two Vintages

The 2023 growing season in South Africa was a tale of two vintages. For producers in the Swartland and northern wine-producing regions, and for those with early-ripening varieties, 2023 offered fantastic ripening conditions – it was relatively cool during the year, without heat spikes. But as I drove through the Western Cape last month during my weeklong stay in South Africa, it was hard to ignore the giant scars on the mountains towering over the country's winegrowing valleys.

These were a reminder of the catastrophic floods and landslides that came at the end of months of heavy rainfall that started in February that year. The continuous rains were a disaster for varieties like cabernet sauvignon in later-ripening areas.

“It was the first year as a winemaker that I saw botrytis in cabernet [sauvignon] in South Africa,” said Boekenhoutskloof winemaker Gottfried Mocke, who described 2023 as “two vintages in two months.”

A later-ripening portion of cabernet grapes at Boekenhoutskloof was picked after 300 millimeters of rain fell in a single weekend. To avoid dilution in the final wine, they took off 30 percent of juice from the tanks before fermentation - a method known as saignee, which is used to concentrate flavors, color or tannin in the final red wine, or to draw off light-colored juice from red grapes to make rosé. Most 2023 cabernet sauvignon-led reds haven’t been released yet, so we’ll have to wait for next year’s tastings to find out if the quality is there, likely at lower quantities.

The 2023 offerings in this report, which represent nearly 40 percent of this year’s tastings of 850 South African wines, include exceptional chenin blanc, syrah and Rhone varietals from the Swartland, as well as pinot noir and chardonnay from the southern coastal regions.

The Sadie Family Swartland Rotsbank 2023 is just such a chenin blanc and it received the highest score we have ever given a South African wine. The wine is tight and steely, showing slate, wild-herb, lime-peel and aniseed aromas, alongside a rocky minerality and incredible tension. It’s produced from bush vines planted in 1987 in the Paardeberg region of the Swartland, and is only the second release of this wine, leapfrogging the rest of Eben Sadie’s range in terms of quality.

The other wine at the top of this year’s report is the Sadie Family Swartland Columella 2022, the 22^nd iteration of Sadie’s now-iconic red wine, which blends syrah with other varieties including mourvedre and grenache. Although from the hot 2022 vintage, it’s the lowest-alcohol version of the blend that Sadie has bottled and is strikingly focused, seductively aromatic and floral.

Eben Sadie’s wines reflect two decades of innovation and new-generation winemaking in the Swartland, an arid region planted with gnarly, low-yielding bush vines under the relentless sun.

“Palladius and Columella were a big inspiration for all of us” in the Swartland, Donovan Rall of Rall Wines told me, referring to Eben Sadie’s white and red blends, which he first made in the early 2000s. Besides the 11 Sadie Family wines in this report (all rated 95 points and above), the top Swartland wines that we tasted from producers like Rall, Alheit, Mullineux, David & Nadia, A.A. Badenhorst and Porseleinberg show refreshing minerality, and typically sit at 12 to 13 percent alcohol. There was a sensation of coolness in the wines from such a hot and dry wine-producing region – temperatures can reach above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in summer – and I asked winemakers how their wines stayed so fresh.

“I think we've figured out which varieties do well in the Swartland,” Rall said. “Chenin blanc and syrah are super forgiving [to pick at lower alcohol], and grapes like grenache are so happy.”

And rather than competing with the likes of Chateauneuf du Pape or Priorat, he said, “we've realized that we need to make lighter, more ethereal styles.”

DAVID AND NADIA SADIE ON THE 2023 VINTAGE

PLANTING FOR THE FUTURE

Compared with chenin blanc and syrah, there are small amounts of old grenache vines in the Swartland – the oldest vineyard, owned by A.A. Badenhorst, was planted in 1952 – but David Sadie (no relation to Eben Sadie) of David & Nadia told me that there has been increased “planting for the future” and investment in heat-loving varieties like grenache. The area of Piekenierskloof, an hour and a half drive north of the Swartland, has seen an exponential amount of plantings of grenache at 600-700 meters above sea level.

The Sadie Family Piekenierskloof Soldaat 2023 is a stunning example of this in our top five wines – a lithe, fresh and red-fruited grenache made with 60 percent whole bunch fermentation. Other fragrant wines from grenache are the Savage Grenache Piekenierskloof Thief in the Night 2023 (Duncan Savage shares Eben Sadie’s grenache vineyard there) and Lourens Family Wines Grenache Noir Piekenierskloof Lua Ilse 2023, both from Piekenierskloof, David & Nadia’s Grenache Swartland 2023, plus the grenache-driven red blends David & Nadia Swartland Elpidios 2022, A.A. Badenhorst Swartland Kalmoesfontein Red Blend 2022 and Mullineux Swartland Roundstone Red 2022.

Grenache blanc, too, has seen plantings and increased single-cultivar bottlings like those from Wolf and Woman, Rall and Scions of Sinai.

Another grape making a small but delicious comeback is pinotage, with winemakers focusing more on fragrance and finesse. As well as full-bodied, polished wines from Kanonkop, L’Avenir and Kaapzicht, check out medium-bodied, elegant and pinot-esque expressions from Wolf & Woman, Bruwer Vintners, Scions of Sinai and Mcfarlane Wines.

“We’re making the fragrant style now, the elegant cinsault-pinot noir side of pinotage,” said Jolandie Fouche of Wolf and Woman. “It’s an early-ripening cultivar so you can take it off before all the heatwaves.”

Bruwer Raats, of Bruwer Vintners, Raats Family Wines and Mvemve Raats, said winemakers' philosophies toward making pinotage have changed. “There was a recipe in the cellar,” he said, speaking about the rubbery-smelling, old-school stereotype of South African pinotage. “I think the world is moving toward drinking lighter-style wines with more freshness.”

In search of even more freshness, I journeyed down to the breezy Hemel-en-Aarde Valley next to the cool Atlantic Ocean. It’s a young winegrowing area – its three separate wards were only created 15 years ago – that has nonetheless quickly identified itself as pinot noir and chardonnay heaven.

“We have a philosophy of trying to express the terroir,” said the winemaker for Storm Wines, Hannes Storm. But that’s not unique among the dozen or so quality-minded South African winemakers that I spoke to.

What is more notable is that Storm has slowly increased his production of each wine to close to 500 cases (and more than 1,000 cases for Vrede). Storm believes that “to make a wine credible globally, it needs to be accessible by everybody.”

All three of Storm Wines’ 2022 pinot noirs (Vrede, Ignis and Ridge) are fantastic single-site expressions full of tension and fragrance – from the floral Vrede in the lowest part of the Valley to the tightly-wound Ridge from the highest area.

Other top single-vineyard wines in South Africa are made in even smaller quantities than what Storm Wines is doing, like David & Nadia’s Chenin Blanc Swartland Skaliekap Single Vineyard Wine 2023, which has an output of just 160 cases. Meanwhile, Kershaw’s Deconstructed series from Elgin – including the Chardonnay Kogelberg Sandstone CY76 2021, Pinot Noir Sandstone PN115 2020 and Syrah Groenland Bokkeveld Shale SH22 2019 – are all stunningly precise and powerful but are produced in the range of 50 to 75 cases, so you might be hard-pressed to find them.

In contrast, Paarl-based producer Vilafonte focuses on only two premium estate wines, Series C and Series M, both with over 1,500 cases in production (and each retailing for around $100), as well as an entry-level wine, the Seriously Old Dirt, which has nearly 20 times the production level and which costs about $40. The prices are on the high end for a country where most wines can be had for under $30.

“For South Africa to progress in the world of wine, we need wines that are more available,” said Vilafonte owner Mike Ratcliffe. “There's not that many South African wines that play at the high end of the quality spectrum at this volume.”

“We're still referred to as outrageous value, which is good, but it’s crazy to sell wines at these prices from 50-year-old vineyards with very low yields,” Ratcliffe added, referring to the many low-production, undervalued South African wines. “So many wines are sold out 11 months of the year."

The South African wine industry has moved ahead by leaps and bounds. The 21^st century has been a “defining period where guys traveled and studied abroad, now have a single-minded vision, and work with varieties that are in tune with terroir,” according to Gavin Bruwer Slabbert of Bruwer Vintners. He is of the opinion that “in the next 15 to 20 years, we will move into a world-class space we can own.”

The top wines are now seeing global recognition – in fact, Mullineux’s Swartland Roundstone Red and White flagship blends will be sold via La Place de Bordeaux starting next year, joining Klein Constantia as the second South Africa winery to be represented by the renowned distribution network.

Other winemakers I spoke to told me that the last few years have seen a growing confidence in making wines that best express South Africa, whether it’s a continued focus on mineral chenin blancs and savory syrahs from the Swartland, or new plantings of grenache and other varieties like verdelho and macabeo.

They are experimenting with new wines like the Mvemve Raats Polkadraai Hills Vesperi 2023 – a Bordeaux-style white blend with chenin blanc that has a “South African stamp on it” – and reimagining historic blends of cabernet sauvignon and cinsault, like the Leeu Passant Coastal Region 2021, as well as rediscovering old cinsault vines and bottling more pure-varietal expressions. Grab a bottle of these likely undervalued wines, wherever you can find them.

– Claire Nesbitt, Associate Editor

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