Single-Owner Private Collection of Fine Wines from South Africa, Bordeaux, Rhône Valley, Italy, Spain and more….
Timed Online Auction, 27 June - 15 July 2024
South Africa - Whites
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
About this Item
Eben Sadie is South Africa’s most revered winemaker and he arguably kick-started the local fine wine revolution. Over two decades his pursuit for quality in the Swartland has been unparalleled in South Africa and he was voted Winemaker of the Year in 2017 by the International Master of Wine Institute. Eben’s wines were influenced by the Rhône and Spain, with traditional local varieties sourced from pockets of old bush vines and unique terroirs. Long-ageing Columella is often regarded as South Africa’s best red, while Palladius similarly offers an incredible Swartland expression and decades of longevity. The old vine single vineyard series, which was first released in the 2009 vintage, is now firmly the most sought-after release of the year. Mev Kirsten is South Africa’s rarest white wine, produced from a century old Stellenbosch vineyard, while the now legendary Skurfberg received 100 points from Tim Atkin in 2020.
Eben Sadie is South Africa’s most revered winemaker and he arguably kick-started the fine wine revolution. Over two decades his pursuit for quality in the Swartland has been unparalleled in South Africa and he was voted Winemaker of the Year in 2017 by the International Master of Wine Institute. Produced from a now-famous, +-85-year-old dryland Chenin Blanc vineyard on the Skurfberg mountain, this special wine forms part of Sadie’s Old Vine Series (Ouwingerdreeks). Only 400 cases were produced and it is one of South Africa’s most sought-after whites.
Provenance
Private Client
Critics Ratings
'The 2015 Old Vine Series Skurfberg, Eben Sadie's pure Chenin Blanc was picked late afternoon and driven to the winery through the night when it is cooler. It offers attractive aromas of lanolin, nutmeg, nectarine and peach skin, well defined and gaining intensity all the time with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with crisp acidity, smoked walnut, bitter lemon and a pinch of white pepper, developing more and more intensity with time. This is sublime.' - Neal Martin, Wine Advocate, 93/100 (Apr 2017)
'Admittedly this is a very serious wine to be drinking so young, but its profound lifted aromatics and complexity already in its infancy are so attractive and beguiling that I would have to recommend drinking this wine at as many stages of its development as the number of bottles in your cellar will allow. On opening, the aromatics are very much spicy, pithy and dominated by dried thyme, tarragon and sweet fennel, with a subtle but defined under vein of crushed granite minerality. 10 minutes in the glass is all that’s required to unleash wave upon wave of pear purée, pithy orange peel, tangerine, crunchy white peaches and other white citrus notes. The palate is almost overpoweringly intense – yet light footed, elegant, incredibly focused, intense and sensorial. The palate resonates with delicious notes of sweet white citrus, green apples, picante orange peel, and a forceful, tart acidity that melts away into the fruit concentration, leaving your mouth salivating for another sip. I often compare great Chenin Blanc from South Africa with great white Burgundy, because few wines can pull off this kind of depth, intensity, and fruit concentration punch with taught bristling acidity, yet remain regal, noble, sophisticated and utterly compelling. This 2015 is a wine that might well define a new generation of quality, from a vintage that already defines supreme quality in the modern era of wine making in South Africa.' - Greg Sherwood MW, 97+/100 (Sep 2017)
'From Olifantrivier Chenin Blanc vineyards planted between 1940 and 1955, the wine has a gorgeous nose of pear, apple, white peach and dried herbs. The palate displays exceptionally pure fruit and great freshness before a long and pithy finish. Extraordinarily direct in the sense of the fruit of a great site in a great vintage beautifully interpreted by the winemaker. The Skurfberg 2015 joins the 2005 and 2006 vintages of Boekenhoutskloof Noble Late Harvest as the wines with the highest ratings ever on this site.'- Christian Eedes, Winemag.co.za, 97/100 (Aug 2016)