Renaissance Chenin Blanc

Pear, Gorgonzola and walnut risotto.

The fruit for this wine is grown in a single block of old, unirrigated bush vineChenin on the foot slopes of the Helderberg Mountain, facing South East acrossFalse Bay. These vines grow high on a steep slope in slightly decomposed granite soils with patches of pure quartz near the top. These gnarled, old vines never yield a big crop (35hL/Ha or 5t/Ha), but because of this, the berries and bunches are small, and the fruit is wonderfully concentrated. Over the winter, rainfall was plentiful and with more moisture in the soil, the vines displayed strong vigour. A couple of warmer evenings in January meant harvest was a little earlier with the grapes having great concentration and intensity of flavour.

The wine was kept on its primary lees throughout maturation, racked out of barrel after about 9 months, assembled and then settled for a month before bottling.

Some of the grapes were skin macerated and the free-run juice was settled for one day before being moved into barrels. Alcoholic fermentation was carried out entirely in a fourth-fill oak foudre, older 300L barrels and an old 500l barrel for 8 – 10 weeks under cool conditions. Malolactic fermentation was inhibited by the cold.

Founded in 1998 by Alex Dale, Radford Dale set about the Cape in search of exciting vineyard parcels for their chosen specialist varietals. Today, they have two producing wineries. The first is located in Stellenbosch, predominantly focused on sourcing maritime influenced parcels around the Helderberg and Polkadraai. Here, they produce the cult, single vineyard wines of Renaissance Chenin Blanc and Frankenstein Pinotage, and the Radford Dale Vinum range; a set of six wines that consistently overdeliver on style to price. The 2022 vintage marked the maiden release from their own vineyards purchased in Elgin under Radford Dale Organic, with the release of four single varietal Estate wines, the only organic certified vineyards in the region. More recently, they have co-founded South Africa’s first Organic Wine Association. They continue to reintroduce Gamay Noir to the Cape, establishing the first new plantings for some 20 years. It’s a varietal geared up to thrive in warm conditions, and on granite soils. Stylistically, Gamay also embodies Radford Dale’s championing of elegant, refreshing red wines.