Sadie Family Wines, Die Ouwingerdreeks, Rotsbank 2022
No, I didn't open this 2022...
...but I tasted it a little while back on a rather debaucherous evening. Scribbled notes on a piece of paper. Lost piece of paper. Here’s what I remember:
The Wine:
Annoyingly precise and annoyingly concentrated. I.e. annoying to my wallet. Tasting this made me sigh and realise that’s it’s not just hype. Pears (that subtle cinnamon spice and roundness of pears), yellow apples, tinned pineapples, whetstone and smoke. And an acidity that’s one of the clearest and most linear (think Alsatian Riesling) that I’ve tasted in a good long while.
Vini + Viti:
Chenin Blanc from the Rotsbank vineyard located in the Paardeberg in the Aprilskloof on a rock shelf with barely 30 – 50 cm of soil in most parts. Many of the roots found cracks in in this rock shelf, limiting their natural growth and produccing concentrated fruit.
After harvest, the grapes are placed in a cooling room, then whole bunch pressed, during which time some settling occurs. The juice is then transferred to two old foudres for fermentation.
Left in a cask on the ferment lees for the first 12 months, and bottled from the lees. Roughly 60ppm of sulphur is added two weeks before bottling.
Final Thoughts:
Look...‘twas a debaucherous weekday evening that included sweetbreads and gatecrushing/being offered a friend’s stash of internationals at the Culture Wine Library. Not a chance that I left sober. Sated but not sober. However, I can confirm that it was superb.
The winemaker said 20 years of ageing potential (‘hi, thank you’, wide eyed ‘ohhh’ at the nose, walk away, walk back later with tipsy confidence to ask about ageing potential, ‘20 years’, frown and raised eyebrow in amateur disagreement). Coz we all know there’s not a chance this will survive even 5 years in my hands 😂!
Find the Wine:
I acquired an allocation from https://www.port2port.wine or try your luck at www.thesadiefamily.com Good luck!
