Private Cellar Chenin Blanc

Rijk's Private Cellar Chenin Blanc pairs beautifully with rich seafood dishes, creamy cheeses, and spicy Asian cuisine. Its acidity and depth of flavor also make it an excellent match for a variety of poultry and pork dishes​.

The grapes for this wine come from low-yielding, well-drained shale and schist soils in Tulbagh, ensuring concentrated flavors. The vines are southeast-facing, optimizing sun exposure for ideal ripening conditions. The yield for the 2023 vintage was around 5.8 tons per hectare​.

30% of the wine was cold fermented in tanks to retain its fresh, fruity characteristics, while the remaining 70% underwent fermentation in 300-liter French and Hungarian barrels, with 40% of the juice fermented using natural yeast to add complexity. The wine was then aged for 11 months on the lees, enhancing its texture and structure​.

Rijk’s is situated 120km North-East of Cape Town and 80km East of the Atlantic ocean in a Mediterranean climate. Our valley is surrounded by the Obiqua, Winterhoek, and Witzenberg mountains which reach heights of up to 1 995m. Lover of good food and collector of good wines, Neville Dorrington had been working in Cape Town for more than 20 years. In 1996 Neville and his family decided to move to the countryside and grow and produce their own wine. We fell in love with the Tulbagh valley and came across 137 hectares of virgin soils that were never cultivated. The slopes faced north, south, east, and west and the analysis of the vertical shale soils revealed the potential for low-yielding, high-quality grapes. Today Rijk’s only focuses on producing Chenin Blanc and Pinotage. Rijk’s has been named in honour of the governor Rijk Tulbagh who governed the Cape from 1751-1771.