2019 David & Nadia "Hoe-Steen" Chenin Blanc, Swartland, South Africa

ABOUT THIS WINE

A Steen vineyard planted back in 1968 on the western part of the Swartland on route to Darling, in deep iron rich coffee stone clay soils, makes for one of their single vineyards which we started working with in 2013/2014. This vineyard is a mixed bag of vineyards propagated in the 1960’s and has its own character. This is their last white vineyard for picking and takes a couple of months to finish fermentation due to the change in temperature after harvest in the Swartland. Hoë-Steen is their third wine qualifying for the Old Vine Project (OVP) seal, celebrating the block’s fiftieth birthday this year. Whole bunch pressed, minimal sulphur during short cold settling for the juice before being racked to barrel for spontaneous fermentation (including malolactic fermentation). The wines ages from vintage to vintage in old 300 L French barrels.

ABOUT THIS PRODUCER

David and Nadia Sadie met at the University of Stellenbosch when he shifted his focus to viticulture after a rugby injury sidelined him from his first love. David went on to work vintages around the world, from Marlborough to St. Emilion, before finally landing back in South Africa. He eventually took over the cellar in the Swartland where Andrea and Chris Mullineux used to make wine prior to their purchase of Roundstone Farm and restored it in 2014. His wife Nadia joined him in 2016 and it’s been a family affair ever since. Nadia oversees viticulture for their project and manages the vineyards that they lease. She employs biological farming, which is to say she avoids the use of any herbicides, plants cover crops and she’s begun experimenting with a conversion to organics. Together, David & Nadia make high acid, textured wines that have cemented them as one of the most highly regarded wineries in the Swartland.