Top 5 for #SauvignonBlancDay 2021

A much anticipated day of year for many wine lovers - today & the whole weekend, #SauvignonBlanc will be flowing in many households. So I thought I'd let you know what #SauvignonBlanc I'll be sipping on over the next few days - each deserve a special mention. (In no particular order...)

1. La Motte - 2021

In all honesty - a go to wine for me. You will ALWAYS find this in my house. (And this is the brand new vintage, which was only harvested in February 2021!) As you swirl your glass - a light straw colour, with glints of green & an initial nose of fresh green apples & gooseberries. Intense tropical flavours of passionfruit & pineapple develop on the palate & end off with a clean lemony finish. Balanced with some good body & concentrated flavours that linger in a refreshing aftertaste. On it's own, or with food it's comes highly recommended. 

2. Robertson Winery - 2020

Last year's vintage, but easy to drink all year round - giving fresh with aromas of bell-peppers & green apples, followed by tropical fruits notes of mango & granadilla on the nose & palate. A gentle acidity giving it that zesty crispness on the finish. A very good wine to enjoy with seafood to complement those fresh salty flavours. (I'd recommend even snacking on some freshly oven baked asparagus whilst sipping on this bottle.)

3. Steenberg Rattlesnake - 2019

The newly released lightly wooded wine is multi-layered & gently textured. A rich & alluring mouthfeel from that touch of Oak & Concrete contact during fermentation. In the glass, a light golden hue as it swirls & aromas of fresh asparagus & Cape gooseberries with hints of lime. All following on the palate with a beautiful balance of acidity & minerality that lingers just long enough. Definitely erving this bottle alongside a creamy pasta. 

(See more about the Steenberg Rattlesnake 2019 #SauvignonBlanc here.)

4. Groote Post Seasalter - 2020

Take me back to the ocean! A beautiful fresh & crisp, zesty fruit-filled nose. Colours of light green & yellow bounce around in your glass between those accompanying flavours. On the palate, grapefruit & lime develop to add that touch of acidity, but then you have that smooth feel from a touch of Semillon that balances it all out. A cooling minerality that pulls through on the clean finish. It's in then name - served nicely chilled with a seafood feast.

(See more about the Groote Post Seasalter 2020 #SauvignonBlanc here.)

5. De Grendel Koetshuis - 2019

A complex & multidimensional pale straw colour wine that has a fresh & invigorating nose of melons & creamy pears. A vintage that follows a severe droughat during 2018 provided for concentrated flavours & allows for the wine to develop in the bottle & in your glass. (So it's a wine that you could keep for another 3-5 years before indulging.) Flavours on the nose, develop on the palate & a smooth finish & lingering aftertaste. Imagine this with fresh seafood salads & lighter meats accompanied by a creamy white wine sauce. 

#WineRoutingWithLloyd

Debut of Cellarmaster Elunda Basson's 1st Steenberg Sauvignon Blanc

As South African's we love a good Sauvignon Blanc, & soon you'll be able to fill your glasses with Cellarmaster - Elunda Basson's very first Steenberg Sauvignon Blanc, in a new style, that expresses its timeless elegance with a new refined look. 

Elunda joined Steenberg back in June 2019, & has since then set her sights on securing Steenberg's place a producer of Top Tier Sauvignon Blanc. "With the 2020 vintage, I am finally able to share my 1st Steenberg Sauvignon Blanc sporting a brand new elegant look." says Elunda. The Steenberg Sauvignon Blanc 2020 & the Steenberg Rattlesnake Sauvignon Blanc 2019 are the 1st to make their debut with the new labels. Still giving prominence to the iconic Steenberg swan whilst reflecting quality, elegance & esteem. The new packaging will be extended further into the range later in the year. 

Steenberg has always been synonymous with Sauvignon Blanc that offers great complexity and individual expressions of the farm's unique place in the Constantia Valley.

The Steenberg Sauvignon Blanc 2020

Embracing beautiful qualities of a Constantia Sauvignon Blanc with a bouquet of Cape gooseberries, nettles, capsicum & white blossoms. A cool-climate wine, that lends itself to soft yet lively entry & giving it an enduring length. On the palate; citrus zest & elderflower, with a distinctive lingering minerality. 

At a recommended selling price of R145.00 - ready to drink now & for another year or 2. Serve it with fresh summer salads or seafood. 

The Steenberg Rattlesnake Sauvignon Blanc 2019

A textured & multi-layered, lightly wooded wine with a rich & alluring mouthfeel, thanks to the fermentation of some of the wine in French Oak & Concrete Egg-shaped vessels. Cape gooseberries & fresh asparagus on the nose, accompanied by hints of capsicum and lime. An elegant & creamy wine with a hint of acidity, finishing off with that distinctive lingering minerality.

A recommended selling price of R170.00 - ready to drink now & I'd even stock up and keep a few bottles for 3-4 more years. Serve this with fresh seafood or a creamy pasta.  Both wines are slightly more on the pricey side of the list, but most definitely worth it.

Check out www.steenbergfarm.com online.
#WineRoutingWithLloyd

Groote Post - 2020 Seasalter

So back in 2015, Groote Post; a historic West Coast farm, released a limited edition bottle of wine with great character. A 'blend' of their flagship Sauvignon Blanc & Semillon with a touch of oak. Little did they know just how popular this wine would become, & soon The Seasalter 2015, a West Coast Story in a Bottle was hit with winelovers. 

There honestly is just so much to love about this wine. From the look & the taste to the smell & memories that come with it.

The farm lies on the western coast, where a cooling icy breeze helps with the slow ripening of grapes, which allows grapes to develop even more intense characteristics - flavour, complexity & finesse. 

Grapes are handsorted, then crushed, adding 10 to 12 hours of skin contact. 20% of the Sauvignon Blanc is then fermented for 4 months in French Oak barrels, & the other 80% in stainless steel tanks. Then blended with a touch of Semillon to add a bit of structure & extra smoothness.

Lets just quickly talk out how beautiful this label is? It's definitely a colour that is going to stand out on any shelf. A pristine Turquoise that reflects that clear Atlantic Ocean water, contrasting against the clean white sandy beaches with seagulls hovering above. Plain & simple. Clean lines. To the point. Stunning! (So I like it. Big thumbs up there.)

When I opened this bottle, & with the first nose of the wine that I got, I was transported straight back to a cool & breezy morning on the beach. The smell of the ocean filling the space around me & the feel of the breeze on my skin. (I got goosebumps.) So a beautiful fresh & crisp zesty fruit nose with a slight hint at softness, that's the Semillon playing around right there. Another thing to love about this wine is that the smell sort of mimics the colour in the glass, or vice versa. If you think of fresh zesty fruit, you immediately think of light greens, yellows & even lime. Now combine all those colours & swirl your glass & you'll see them develop & bounce around between some light in your glass.  

When the flavours develop upon your first sip some of those zesty smells now develop on your tongue - with grapefruit & lime adding some acidity & again, you'll even taste that sea breeze! Remember that Semillon that was added? Well that adds a bit of a fuller mouth feel whilst balancing out the acidity. Some very nice minerality from that west coast cool-climate sauvignon blanc. All just coming together in a wonderful easy drinking wine with a clean finish. 

Since I can't be at the coast right now, I'm hoping that there's a bit of magic in a bottle that will somehow transport me down to the coast where I'll definitely be polishing off a bottle with a massive fresh seafood feast!

Top 10 Wines for turning 30

So I'm turning 30 this year! Actually in 2 weeks time, on the 23rd of July. I was going to travel to France to sip on Champagne & indulge in some foreign wines as a spoil. However, here we sit with the Corona Virus epidemic that has hit the entire world harder than expected & unfortunately, I had to cancel my 30th birthday trip and now I'll be celebrating alone at home. 

So, instead I've decided to share my top 10 favourite wines, that I'll be sipping on over the next month, with you. (This is honestly no easy task to narrow down a list to only 10, so it's taken some real thought & hard decision making.)

So in no particular order...

1. Ataraxia - Pinot Noir (Hemel en Aarde)

I remember sharing a glass from the 1st unlabeled bottle of 2017 with winemaker; Kevin Grant on a #WineRoutingWithLloyd trip back in 2018. The wooded red wine seems to reflect the light, whilst the nose promises a blend of ripe cherries, fresh earth & oak. And that's exactly what follows through on the palate with a soft ripe red fruit aftertaste & finish, making it an everyday wine for me. 

2. La Motte - MCC (Franschhoek) 

A beautiful mix of Chardonnay & Pinot Noir culminating in a heavenly fermented glass of fine bubbles. Soft on the palate, with a burst of flavour. Hints of citrus & baking brioche on the nose. Finishing off with a freshness that cleanses the palate to prepare it for the next sip. 

3. Steenberg - Semillon (Constantia Valley)

Aromas of honey mixed with white stone fruits hit your nose on the first smell and slowly carry through to the palate with roasted almonds developing alongside soft fruits. At the Steenberg Garden Party, I discovered that the aftertaste is everything, combining citrus & floral spices that linger the perfect amount of time between sips. Definitely a wine that's only going to get better & more complex with time. 

4. Flagstone - Dark Horse Shiraz (Stellenbosch)

Mysterious in every way possible. Like the Dark Horse. A 100% Shiraz that embodies all the best characteristics thereof. As the name suggests, a dark plum colour fills your glass with a complex combination of aromas that fill your nose - dark black fruits & dark chocolate with subtle undertones of spice. All of which follow through on the palate developing from the tip of the tongue right through to the back of the mouth ending in a smooth winning finish. 

5. Holden Manz - Cabernet Franc Reserve (Franschhoek)

A discovery that Gerard Holden introduced me to at the Winter Sculpture Fair is a rich & elegant wine that legitimately hits all the right spots. A Burma ruby has got nothing on the red that fills your glass. Ripe raspberries mixed with tobacco leaves, lavender & fresh black fruits take over as the aromas develop. And on the palate, a smooth wine with balanced savoury flavours mixed with those fresh black fruits. (Not opening my last bottle for another 8 years at least.)

6. De Grendel - Koetshuis Sauvignon Blanc (Durbanville)

Another #WineRoutingWithLloyd first. The first stop on the very first trip back in 2018 too. Pale straw  with glints of green and gold as the light passes through the glass. Something between a mix of ripe pineapple & creamy melon on the nose & the palate, that gives the wine added longevity to age for another 3-5 years whilst the complexity develops too. 

7. Waterford - Kevin Arnold Shiraz (Stellenbosch)

A firm favourite dating back to 2016 when I met Kevin Arnold at a private tasting with friends. And since then, it's always been on my list. A rather complex wine on both the nose & palate with ripe red & dark fruits, somewhat earthy yet fresh. Touched off with plums & spice it makes for perfect drinking & a velvety smooth finish that's only going to get better with age. 

8. Le Lude - MCC (Franschhoek) 

There really is just something about MCC that comes out of the Franschhoek Valley. The Le Lude Non Vintage MCC I discovered on a tasting with then winemaker - Paul Gerber back in 2012/2013, just when Le Lude came onto the scene. Finer bubbles in a South African MCC I have not experienced. An elegant bubbly with aromas of citrus blossoms & fresh lime. Hints of sweet nougat & roasted almonds. But a fresh taste & feel on the palate developing flavours of grapefruit, lemon & pears. Then the aftertaste not only leaves you with wanting more, but also with honey & vanilla. 

9. Leopards Leap - Culinaria Chenin Blanc (Franschhoek)

#WineRoutingWithLloyd was started to discover the unique & what I found at the Chef's South African Table with the then head chef - Pieter de Jager gave me some new found respect for Leopards Leap. A Chenin Blanc that is very well defined with aromas of ripe white peaches, melons & hints of spice. A vibrant acidity in the wine complements all the flavours, but best part is the oak on the wine gives it that extra bit of structure that's going to ensure this wine ages real well if you can keep it on the wine rack for long enough.

10. Mullineux Quartz Chenin Blanc (Swartland)

A white wine that has been made to age! An interesting straw colour, with glints of a lemon yellow as you swirl your glass. The quartz ensures the beautiful mineral character hits the nose alongside some ripe citrus. These follow onto the palate with added white peaches & a somewhat creaminess whilst finishing off nice & fresh. 10 to 20 years will only give the wine more opportunity to develop enhancing flavours in the bottle.

So here's to sipping on some real good South African wine & celebrating 30 years.