Terroir & Expression Tasting Journey — from the historic Loire Valley to the Cape.
Exploring the ancestral home of Chenin Blanc across the benchmark terroirs of the Middle Loire Valley — one grape that changes its shape with every soil, exposure and hand that picks it.
Signature notes of quince, chamomile, green apple, wool, bruised pear and wild honey evolve into rich lanolin and truffle with bottle age.
Ranges from crisp Sec to opulent Moelleux. Floral chamomile, white peach and a creamy honeyed texture, held upright by bright limestone acidity.
Primarily dry still wines and traditional-method sparkling, defined by bright, zesty acidity, chalky limestone influence and fresh orchard fruit. Tuffeau — a soft, chalky limestone — gives the signature high acidity and clean, refreshing snap.
On the north bank of the Loire, Savennières is renowned for dry Chenin of immense density, power and structure. Grown on steep plateaus of dark schist, these wines demand cellaring to unfold layers of wet stone, bruised apple and beeswax.
Never dry, always semi-sweet to sweet. Grown on well-drained schist, sandstone and clay along the Layon river, and often marked by botrytis — noble rot — or by grapes sun-dried on the vine.
Fruit-forward in Anjou and Touraine; minerally and earthy in the upper, volcanic reaches of Côtes du Forez and Côte Roannaise.
Sancerre, Menetou-Salon and Reuilly — minerally and earthy.
Rosés, light reds, and the backbone of many blends.
Lighter here than in the south-west, but robust.
How South Africa reclaimed its historic 'Steen' to forge a globally acclaimed style rooted in old bush vines.
Unirrigated bush vines. Swartland's low-yielding, un-grafted old vines — planted in the mid-20th century — produce wines of extraordinary concentration and texture.
Nine centuries, two hemispheres, one grape. Check what stuck — soils, sweetness levels, and which bank of the Loire you were standing on.