Samesyn Verdelho 2023
If you love high acid white wines that scream with energy and verve, find this wine! I've tasted it on three separate occasions and had the same toe-wiggling, get-up-and-dance reaction every single time!
The Wine:
This wine speaks to all my savoury cravings: sun-warmed kelp baking on the rocks layered in salty crust i.e. flint and salinity. Perfectly ripe sweet peaches blushing through their dusty rose fur, while lemongrass and sweet lemons beam down on them. The reduction eventually blows off to reveal honey, nutty apricots, pineapples and fresh yeast.
The palate sinks the damn ball! Brilliant acidity skirting the edge of painful; medium bodied; subtle citrus pith and mineral baking soda texture drive microscopic fissures into the overall smooth salinity...straight into the pocket where globules of sweet lemon fill your mouth. Medium-ish length on the first pass...but the grapefruit lingers and resolves itself as sweet peaches and pineapples.
A nibble of Brie cheese brought out deeeelicious bitter herbals. And by day 2, the herbal bitterness was firmly part of the palate.
Vini + Viti:
100% Verdelho from a tiny 0.3 hectare vineyard planted in 2001 on Papkuilsfontein in Groenekloof (Groenekloof is a ward within Darling). The low yielding vineyard with its red iron-rich granite soils is situated 150 metres above sea level and 12 kilometres from the Atlantic ocean.
After picking, the grapes are cooled overnight and whole bunch pressed into stainless steel tanks to settle and begin fermentation. Once fermentation is complete, the wine is racked into an old 300 litre French oak barrel where it undergoes malolactic conversion and is matured for 10 months in barrel.
Final thoughts:
I love this wine! It's initially the combination of savoury sea kelp and brilliant acidity that reminded me of Madeira...and then the way that acid, citrus and mineral texture resolve themselves as juicy fruit and bitter herbals.
It's also a delightful project made by friends. The name Samesyn means Togetherness...and this wine is begging to be shared together with friends.
