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Thorne & Daughters

2024

‘Cat’s Cradle’

Old Vine Chenin Blanc   |   Swartland - South Africa
Shelf Talker Spec Sheet Wine Label Bottle Image

About

Swartland Chenin Blanc needs no introduction, having long assumed its place among the world’s key expressions of this variety. Langkloof, where John sources the majority of the grapes for this wine, is an old bush vine Chenin Blanc vineyard planted on the granite slopes of the Paardeberg that belongs to the Rossouw family. The vineyard is situated between parcels owned by Eben Sadie and Chris Alheit, which says something about its aptitude for greatness. John first bottled this site as a single-vineyard wine in 2017 and this year felt a new site to him would complement the vintage quite well and added a small bit of 42-year-old vine fruit from a block John shares with Chris Alheit off of the Nuweland Farm just north of Malmesbury.  Here the iron-rich granitic sands bring a honeyed fruit component to the blend that gives added texture and weight to the nervy granitic Paardeberg fruit.  The 2024 vintage was characterized by a dry and hot lead into harvest and John made the decision to wait a bit, sacrificing a touch of acidity for more flavor and phenolic development.  The 24s have about .5% more alcohol than the previous few vintages, but flavor and texture in abundance.

As with all of the wines…the winemaking is pretty simple. Handpicked, whole bunch basket-pressed direct to old French barrels, larger ones in this case, with the gross lees. No sulfur addition and fermentation kicked off naturally with ML following right after.  A tiny hit of sulfur was added in the winter for light protection and then the wine aged for nine months. After this maturation time, the barrels were racked to tank where the wine settled naturally without fining. It was bottled with a crossflow filtration and just a small sulfur addition.

Stats

  • Grapes: 100% Chenin Blanc
  • Vineyard: 75% two blocks from Langkloof Farm (Aprilskloof, Paardeberg) - 25% single block from Nuweland Farm (Malmebury)
  • Vine Age: 41-45-years-old (Langkloof Farm) - 42-year-old (Nuweland Farm)
  • Soil Type: Weathered granite over schist with sandy loam (Langkloof) - Iron-rich sand (Nuweland)
  • Viticulture: Practicing organic - dry-farmed
  • Fermentation: Native – whole-bunch pressed to old 600L French barrels
  • Skin Contact: None
  • Aging: 9 months in old 600L French barrels
  • Alcohol: 13.5%
  • pH: 3.4
  • Total Acidity: 5.6 g/L
  • Total SO2: 59 ppm
  • Total Production: 250 cases
  • UPC: 606110152433
  • SRP: $44.99

Tasting Note

This is Chenin Blanc with its sleeves rolled up—honest, quietly profound, and a touch brash. Orchard fruit, beeswax, fresh hay, citrus peel, toasted almonds, and wildflowers emerge in layers, but what stays with you is the remarkable interplay between breadth and tension: a wine at once generous and taut, its savory minerality and waxy texture carrying a relentless energy. This will certainly reward patience but impossible to ignore now.

Press & Reviews

Tim Atkin, MW

95

"John Seccombe's Chenin Blanc is centred on the granite soils of the Paardeberg, with a 25%
component from Malmesbury, making the most of four old-vine parcels in the Swartland.
Rich, dense, compact and built to age, this is stony, pithy and intense, with notes of thatch
and lanolin, citrus and orange zest flavours and bags of energy. 2026-30"
- Tim Atkin, MW

The WineMag

96

"Grapes from three Swartland vineyards, two Paardeberg vineyards on granite and one west of Malmesbury on more iron-rich soil. The nose is expressive, offering notes of pear, peach, a touch of lemon, hay and florals. The palate is rich and intense, yet brimming with energy, the finish deeply savoury. Dense but equally remarkably taut."

- Christian Eedes

James Suckling

94

"Lemon curd, oats, honeycomb, papayas, toast and mangoes on the nose of this flavorful white. It’s full-bodied, deliciously tropical and generous, yet structured and firm. Toasty and stony undertones to the fleshy, yellow fruit. Drink or hold."

- Claire Nesbitt
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Producer


Thorne & Daughters

Region


Swartland

Country


South Africa

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