False Bay 'Slow' Chenin Blanc 2025

Chenin Blanc is one of the trademark South African white varieties and while it makes up a lot of their generic wines those from good vineyard sites are real gems. This example is given the moniker 'Slow' because the fermentation takes with wild yeasts naturally present in the environment and and consequently takes a good deal longer and allows the wine to acquire some rich, bready aromas and additional layers of complexity that wouldn't develop with a short ferment. In all, the wine spends a minimum of 10 months on its lees with the end result being a mutli-layered wine with a herbaceous notes of fennel and aniseed followed up with a creamy lemon character.

Really versatile it suits seafood, risottos, herby roast chicken and is also great with spicy dishes.

Named after South Africa's most iconic bay, which frames much of the country's premium winelands, False Bay Vineyards was founded in 1994 by Paul Boutinot who came to the Western Cape to seek out and rescue grapes from old, under-appreciated vineyards that were destined to be lost in the large co-operative blends that were dominating South Africa's wine industry back then. Somewhat ahead of his time, Paul transformed these gems into wines with a minimum of intervention: wild yeast ferments, no acid additions etc. It's a familiar story to many 'real wine' lovers now, but back then he was swimming against the tide. And even today, making wine this way at the modest price-level they ask for their wines is not something you'll come across too often.