Boekenhoutskloof Semillon 2021
TLDR: despite the impeccable pedigree of this wine, this Boekenhoutskloof Semillon 2021 wasn't for me.
The Wine:
A beautiful nose of dark toast (on the verge of burning), lemons, sea salt salinity, dark toffee (burnt sugar), herbal chamomile tea, nettle tea...but with the danger of handling fresh stinging nettles with bare hands, and distant peaches.
A lean medium-ish bodied wine with texturised grapefruit pith & drying fresh quince texture, medium (+) acidity, and a long finish. Lemons, peaches, smoke, radicchio/grapefruit/quinine bitterness, marmalade rinds, a breath of gingery melon (craving watermelon konfyt [preserve]) & watered down brandy fumes, the burn of kumquat, cold slate & metallic minerality gathers under your gums on the finish...and weirdly also granadilla.
Vini + Viti:
Sémillon from two unirrigated vineyards planted in 1902 and 1942 on alluvial soils with a high loam content in the Franschhoek Riverbed. The 3rd batch of Sémillon was planted further up the valley on south-facing slope of decomposed
granite and quartz soils. A small portion of Muscat d'Alexandrie, planted in 1902, was added.
The Sémillon grapes were whole-bunch pressed and spontaneously fermented in 225-litre barriques and concrete eggs. Maturated at low temperatures, without sulphur, for 14 months: 70% in new French oak barriques and 30% in
concrete eggs. The Muscat d'Alexandrie was
skin-fermented and matured in clay amphora.
ALC 13.57 % | RS 1.5 g/L | TA 5.2 g/L | PH 3.26
Final thoughts:
Boekenhoutskloof has an impeccable reputation, with the previous vintage receiving White Wine of the Year and receiving 99 points from Tim Atkin, and being awarded Platter’s South African Wine Guide Editor’s Award for Winery of the Year in 2020 (as well as in 2012 as the John Platter’s Winery of the Year).
But somewhere along the line this wine lost me - perhaps because the watery mouthfeel paled when flanked by other Sem bangers, or maybe becaue it deserves the kind of bottle ageing patience that escapes me. It felt cold.
I suspect this wine crosses the line where wine studies start to impede wine appreciation? Knowing a little too much but nowhere near enough makes me sceptical. It’d be easier to join the ranks of many critics with refined far greater experience...but my heart says that this is missing something... African warmth and hospitality.