The Cluver winery is situated in a valley surrounded by mountains, 70km east of Cape Town, and bordering Stellenbosch. Its elevation and the moderating influence of the nearby ocean make Elgin the coolest winegrowing region in South Africa. This provides the ideal environment for the slower ripening of grapes, producing elegant pure-fruited Sauvignon Blanc with a mineral core. Dry ice is used in the winery to keep temperatures low and stop the wine reacting with oxygen, thus preserving all the crisp cool climate flavours. In addition the wine was left on the lees for four months, adding flavour and body. Winemaker Andries Burger is confident enough in its abilities to suggest some pretty challenging food matches including “goat’s milk and nutty gruyere cheeses, asparagus and artichokes.”

BWC Wines (formerly The Barefoot Wine Company) were established in 1997 in a renovated cellar at the Ridgeback Winery in Paarl. They are an ambitious group of young winemakers led by Cathy Marshall who masterminded her own worldwide apprenticeship learning to make wine in France, Oregon, California and Australia before returning to South Africa. Fruit for the BWC Shiraz is sourced from a south facing vineyard with gravel soils on the Ridgeback Estate. Manual harvesting took place in mid-February at optimal seed ripeness when the berries were very small giving concentrated fuller flavours. There is warm cherry fruit on the nose and a savoury, smoky palate with dark mocha chocolate flavours intertwining with cedary spice from eleven months in a mixture of French and American oak.

Paul Cluver, Chardonnay, Elgin, 2004

Paul Cluver Wines are grown on De Rust, one of the oldest estates in South Africa’s Elgin Valley. This cool climate area has the potential to provide slow ripening grapes with delicate aromas and fruit character reminiscent of Burgundy. Burgundian influence is evident in the winery with yeasts sourced from the region and ageing in oak barrels from three Burgundian Cooperages: the results have earned praise from Jancis Robinson. “I find a most attractive natural freshness in South Africa’s white wines that, in the case of the top Chardonnays particularly, offer arguably the world’s best value alternative to White Burgundy.”

Rudera Chenin Blanc, Stellenbosch, 2006

Chenin Blanc is an astonishingly versatile grape with its spiritual home in the Loire valley where it produces everything from age worthy dessert wines to delicious, honeyed dry whites and sparklers. Outside of France it is only South Africa that has developed a dry style of Chenin Blanc with a world class reputation approaching that of the Loire wines. Teddy Hall, founder of Rudera, is dedicated to producing the “purest expression of excellence” in his wines and this has already seen him voted Wine Magazine “Chenin Blanc Producer of the Year” four times since he founded this winery in 2000. His vineyards are situated on cool slopes in the prime Koelenhof and Faure area of Stellenbosch. All the grapes are hand picked. In the winery only free run juice is used and fermentation is natural, relying on yeasts from the indigenous microflora of the grapes. The wine is then matured in barrels for eight months on the lees; thereafter it is racked, lightly filtered and bottled without being stabilized. This creates a luscious wine with great texture, freshness and elegance. The palate is packed with grapefruit and tropical flavours and some floral notes. There is good minerality and a super-long finish.

A joint venture between Bruno Prats (Cos D’Estournel), Hubert de Bouard (Angelus) and Lowell Jooste (Klein Constantia) makes for a South African Bordeaux blend with a cracking pedigree. Some sturdy oaking and a predominance of Cab Sauv will really repay with cellaring, but can be drunk now.