2019 Skaliekop Chenin Blanc

The 2019 Chenin Blanc Skaliekop is well defined on the nose, with wax resin, lanolin and grilled walnut scents emerging with time. The balanced palate offers a dab of dried honey on the entry, then a little tangerine peel, dovetailing into an understated finish. Fine.

The 2019 Skaliekop is pure Chenin Blanc from the titular single vineyard. It has a wonderful bouquet of yellow flowers, honeysuckle, nashi pear and melted candle wax, all supremely well defined. The palate is extremely well balanced, intense yet not taxing or exerting excessive weight in the mouth. It skips along with light ginger and white pepper notes. Focused and delineated toward the finish, which fans out with confidence. Superb.

Single-vineyard wine tasted in July from a bottle whose cork had been slightly forced out of the bottleneck, I assume because it was held up by French customs in hot weather. See that earlier tasting note for the background to the wine. I'm writing my notes below without reference to my earlier ones. Intense, broad, honeyed nose that could only be dry-grown Cape Chenin with an overlay of wild flowers and herbs. Bone-dry finish and a lightly smoky (reductive?) note. Long and throat-warming. Real tension in this wine, but no austerity. Definitely more immediate and more flattering than the Hoë-Steen. (JR)