When we offered Axle Chenin Blanc 2025 on pre-arrival earlier this year, it was quickly secured by those who knew what to expect.
It has now landed in the UK, and availability is already tightening.
We began with an allocation of just over a quarter of the total 6,000-bottle production, and close to half has already been spoken for. What remains is moving quickly.
But while Axle may be his only white wine in meaningful volume, it’s not the wine that defines Alex Milner.
Tamlyn Currin describes him simply as the “Cinsault Whisperer,” a winemaker who has quietly reshaped what the grape can be in the Cape.
Her first encounter with his wines?
A “seismic… lightning strike” — the moment Cinsault revealed its ability to transmit terroir with spine-tingling clarity and haunting purity.
These are not styled, cellar-driven wines. They are discovered, often by bicycle, from old, overlooked vineyards across the Cape, and made with a level of restraint and intuition that defines Milner’s entire approach.
There is another white, a tiny, new 800-bottle blend, of which we’ve secured an unusually meaningful share for the UK market. Guaranteed early access to some of Alex’s most limited wines, as is our custom.
For now, get your hands on one of South Africa’s most quietly sought-after Chenins, while we still have stock.
Axle Chenin Blanc 2025 is now available at £26.99
(10% off any 6 bottles)
Alongside it, a small allocation of Milner’s site-specific Cinsaults, the wines that built his reputation.
100% Chenin Blanc, Darling
17.5 Points – Jancis Robinson MW
“Certified Heritage Vineyard Chenin bush vines planted in 1985 on decomposed granite. Some whole bunch and some destemmed with a bit of skin contact. Spontaneous fermentation in old 225-litre French barrels and large cask. Aged 10 months on lees. Fragrance on the nose shifting, dappled, like spring sunlight through bare branches fuzzy with buds. Petrichor, apple blossom, acacia flowers, brick dust. Alex Milner’s chicane of making a bone-dry Chenin taste like a dessert wine. Baked pears set within a crystal cluster of acidity, prismic in its brightness, in the way it seems to split and bend the frequency of the wine’s energy into a blade of rainbows. Spiciness – cinnamon, fine-ground cigar, cardamon – rising and falling on the breath of the wine.” – Tamlyn Currin.
100% Cinsault, Darling
98 Points – Decanter | 96+ Points – Greg Sherwood MW | 17.5 Points – Jancis Robinson MW | 95 Points – Tim Atkin MW
“Certified Heritage Vineyard planted in 1978. Dry-farmed, bush-vine vineyard. Spontaneous fermentation in concrete tank, basket-pressed, left in large oak casks for 11 months. Every year, I lift this glass to my nose, breathe deeply, taste it, breathe deeply, and sigh with relief. My Darling, darling Cinsault. It has yet to disappoint me. It takes me back to African sunrises – sitting on kopjes in the Matobo Hills, watching blood-red light spill across and down the splits of bald granite rocks, the scent of resurrection bush in my nose, and the smell of rooibos tea. It has that fragile transparency of a paper-thin sliver of ruby – it feels as if it might crack in your mouth and maybe disappear. It really does taste of ancient rocks (and if you think I’m crazy, you need to watch the sun rise from the edge of the Matobo Hills). You can taste the rocks in the air. You can taste the sun rise. It’s not a wine that seeks to charm or please. It’s a wine that is. Meet it at its place.12.5% ” – Tamlyn Currin.
100% Cinsault, Stellenbosch
95 Points – Greg Sherwood MW | 17.5 Points – Jancis Robinson MW | 95 Points – Tim Atkin MW
“Alex Milner tell me that, this is ‘a wonderful vineyard. Chris [Alheit] called me and said, ‘don t you want this vineyard?’. And we now take it entirely. It’s on the Polkadraai Hills. And old guy planted the vineyard in 1972 to make port, but there was never enough sugar in the grapes.’ Spontaneous fermentation for 12 days, left on stalks post-fermentation for structure and depth, 10% whole bunch. Goes into foudre for ageing for 18 months. TA 5.7 g/l, RS 2.1 g/l, pH 3.68, VA 0.78. 2,000 bottles. The perfume on this is unbelievable: damask roses, sandalwood. A wonderful matrix of structure in depth and breadth and length. So peppery. Deep roasted-tomato, roasted capsicum and then tomato vine on the finish. A real tapestry. Tannins running through it like bird-fine bones. Wild-strawberry sherbet. Such a long, long, white-pepper finish. A wine like this makes me hanker for steak tartare!” – Tamlyn Currin.
