A South African Sauvignon Blanc

This is the first wine from South Africa that I’ve written about, and again I’m not sure as to why, they do produce some fantastic wines, and they also won Bibendums World Cup of Wine against Italy earlier this year. So I think I should really have covered some of their wines before now!

The wine in question comes from the guys at the Boekenhoutskloof winery in Franschoek, and is their Porcupine Ridge Sauvignon Blanc 2009. The fruit for this wine comes from vineyards in the Malmesbury, Wellington, Robertson and Franschoek regions. They also add about 2% of Semillon to the blend to give it greater complexity and another dimension. The fermentation is maintained at low temperatures to ensure they capture more of the tropical flavours, the wine is also left on it’s lees to add even more complexity.

In the glass, it had an almost water white colour, with aromas of tropical fruit which were not particularly pronounced, but enjoyable. You got these flavours coming through on the palate, where the tropical fruit was predominately that of Pineapples. It had a high and very level of acidity, which really made your mouth water and worked very well with the fruit flavours.

While this, surprisingly due to the high level of acidity was a well balanced wine, it lacked the complexity I expected from the lees ageing and the addition of the Semillon. However it was an enjoyable drink that would go very well creamy Chicken pasta dish.