Roodekrantz’s “Die Kliphuis” Old-Vine Chenin Blanc 2021 is online publication Inside Guide’s wine of the week!
Established in 2015, Roodekrantz Wines is the coming together of the Burger family and the Morkels of Diemerskraal. Roodekrantz has a noble purpose: it was created with the aim of rescuing heritage sites from being blended away into innocuous big-name blends, or even worse, from being grubbed up.
“It’s all about the grape,” says winemaker Danie Morkel. “For us, a barrel is simply a vessel to facilitate the development of the intrinsics of the vineyard.” They boast an impressive portfolio of terroir-driven wines, the highlight of which is a series of old-vine Chenin Blancs.
No other wine region on earth has the wealth of old-vine Chenin – let alone as much Chenin – as the Cape. The closest contemporary is the Loire. There are currently 16 827 hectares of Chenin planted in our national vineyard. Just over half of this is old vine. Roodekrantz is rightly taking advantage of this embarrassment of riches; producing five, super-fine Chenins. The grapes are sourced from the divergent terroirs of Stellenbosch, Paarl and the Swartland.
The wines are then vinified in the same way – 10 months of maturation in old oak – in their Wellington winery. Danie inoculates with commercial yeast, so as to not obscure the site and Chenin’s role as a ”‘storyteller”.
It’s tough to choose just one, but for the sake of showcasing an evocative Swartland site, we’ve chosen Die Kliphuis 2021. Located in a cooler pocket of the Swartland, bush vines planted in 1977 sprawl over white-sand soil. This liminal site imbues the wine with a white-hot linear intensity. It’s taut, geeky with a deep mineral core and washed through with lime-freshness to the pithy, salted finish.
Pair with the freshest seafood… Oysters au naturel, thinly sliced tuna sashimi, sizzling ginger kingklip.
Cheers!
