Winemaker, Alex Milner, who cycles around The Cape looking for forgotten vineyards, has raised the bar once again with the 2024 release of his (certified) Old Vine Chenin Blanc ‘Axle’ from the adorably-named region of Darling. It’s a labour of love from Alex and, as such, it seems to improve year-in, year-out, and this feels like the most complete vintage yet. It’s a little tighter and more mineral than the 2024, bristling with energy and tension, but always with that core of succulent fruit and its summery scent of fynbos on a warm breeze.

The texture holds the wine together, being neither too viscous, nor too thin, and helps spread the flavours evenly across the palate. Until this vintage, Alex used a basket-press to extract the juice for the grapes, knocking up an impressive 80 hours of manual pressing in 2023, which he says “practically finished me off!”. So, he has now bought a pneumatic press and the 2024 vintage was done mechanically, which means that the wine was exposed to oxygen for less time and the 2024 is notably lighter in colour and fresher in character than last year. 13% alc. Aged in barrel for 9 months. Sourced from certified heritage vineyards. Drink now-2029.

NB The bottle has a soft wax seal. Simply insert your corkscrew through the wax and extract the cork as normal and the wax will come away with the cork. If you feel the need to start a Twitter feud about the merits of wax seals, please pour yourself a glass of this first, take a moment, and then see how you feel.

Press reviews:

Greg Sherwodd MW: “The 2024 vintage is proving to be a good one for many of South Africa’s top white wines and this beautiful new Old Vine dryland bush vine Chenin Blanc release from Alex Milner at Natte Valleij is no exception. Aged for 9 months in barrel, the aromatics show a beautifully pure, crisp, crystalline delineation that’s tightly packed with yellow honeysuckle, pineapple chunks in syrup, white peaches and sweet granadilla before more subtle hints of tangerine, apricots and dried guava develop. The deep Granitic soils give the palate an incredible clarity, purity and wound spring tension with the pineapple and passion fruit layers gently buffered by stony mineral phenolics and bright, mouthwatering, tangy acids. The cool 13% alcohol is simply the cherry on the cake giving the wine a fresh, suave, sophisticated elegance. Pure class. Drink now to 2032+.” 96 points

Winemaker, Alex Milner, writes: “My wife loves the more textured styles of Chenin blanc, so I thought it would be fun if I could make her one. We were wanting to make a style that was low in alcohol, allow us to work completely naturally, but yet have a balance of acid that would have you coming back for more. We spent the most part of the winter of 2017 tasting and visiting various vineyards, to find the one that fitted our desired profile. Welcome to our Darling vineyard, which from the onset, we knew we had something interesting.”

Winemaking

“To achieve our desired goals, extreme care is taken to pick these grapes at the optimal ripeness, this happens in late January. Harvested by hand and then further sorted in the cellar, to ensure only the best fruit is used. Grapes are whole bunch pressed in our basket press, this juice is cooled and allowed to settle. The skins from the press are then put into a tank and left overnight to be lightly pressed again the following day. This is our skin contact component and adds a perfect depth to the final wine. The clean juice is then racked to seasoned barrels, some fine lees is added. Fermentation begins slowly after 2-3 days. malolactic fermentation also occurs naturally. Post fermentation baronage occurs fort-nightly for 2 months. Wines are left sur lie for 10 months in their barrels, after which it is racked and bottled. Made with minimal interference and pretence - preserving the intrinsic link between bottle and grape.”

Old dry-farmed bush vines on decomposed granite. Basket pressed and left undisturbed in a barrel for nine months.

Customer Comments:

”The Axle Chenin Blanc rather restored my faith in South African Chenin” - Mr S.C.

”Love the Axle Chenin!” - Mr. J.M.

“It’s excellent stuff.” My D.O.

”Tried the Chenin last night - it’s great!” - Mr. F. L.

”Wine received. Two have already disappeared! It's great!” - Mr. M. D.

“Do you have anymore of the Axle Chenin? Just opened a bottle, wow, I'd like to buy some more...” - Mr D.L.

”This is awesome. Really lovely SA Chenin.” - Mr. V. S.

“Just purchased 2 more cases of the Axle.. I’ve decided it going to be Xmas presents for everyone this year.. it’s very good!.” - Mr J.L.