Heritage Chenin Blanc

A sophisticated wine for equally sophisticated food. This gastronome’s dream makes an outstanding partner for anything from a wild mushroom risotto, to rich grilled line fish, to a well-aged Angus rib-eye steak.

Leeuwenkuil block Q survived 34 seasons under dry-land farmed conditions. The 2 800 vines per hectare compete for every drop of valuable moisture in the clay and shale-dominated soil. The fruit is beautiful, tight bunches with berries of high natural acidity. 2020 was a cool, dry, long growing season. While yields on these dry-land farmed, old bush-vine vineyards were extremely low, fresh acidity and complex, layered flavour profile made for an excellent vintage.

Aged for 14 months before filling.

The Heritage wines are made in a pre-modern, natural style, like top end Vouvray Chenin. We joined forces with one of the best from the homeland of Chenin and got Vincent Carême involved to help guide each vintage into a very fine wine. The process is very simple: whole bunch pressing, no Sulphur on the juice, natural yeast fermentation and very limited use of new French oak.

Leeuwenkuil, or “Lion’s Lair”, was given its alluring name as a tribute to the ferocious Cape Lion that roamed the farmlands hunting unsuspecting cattle. Watering holes in the area were frequented by these lions, who posed a great threat to local cattle farmers. Luckily for the Dreyer family, Leeuwenkuil’s land was perfectly suited for growing vineyards. In 1693, Leeuwenkuil was known as Schinderkuijl. This German name refers to the tradition of gathering materials from demolished buildings or shipwrecks to create something entirely new – as carried out on the farm. Today the buildings on Leeuwenkuil are some of the oldest and most valuable in the entire region. While the manor house was built using stone, the lintels above the manor doors were sourced from the bottom of a ship’s bow. The Leeuwenkuil courtyard still has the same historical layout as back in 1704 with two long houses, outbuildings and animal pens. Schinderkuijl was one of the early wine farms of the region and had 8000 vines planted on it. In 1800, following its subdivision, the farm’s name was changed to Leeuwenkuil and in 1851, the charismatic Dreyer family became the new owners. Johan Frederik Dreyer was a direct descendant of Johannes Augustus Dreyer who fled Germany, in 1713. As with any good tale, this adventure involved a woman. Legend has it he had to flee Germany after defeating his opponent in a sword fight over this very woman.