2018 Spioenkop, Johanna Brandt Chenin Blanc

JancisRobinson.com 17.5/20

Full bottle 1,403 g. 100% Chenin Blanc. The Johanna Brandt comes from the lower section of the Chenin Blanc vineyard on shale soils. Aged in oak. One sniff of this wine and I was smitten. Toast and tangerine, lemon marmalade and candied angelica. It has a spine-tingling intensity, a pirouette of peach, the shimmer flare of a peacock tail. It dances, teases; one moment rich and oak-curved sensuous, the next sharp as the glitter of an elvin blade. It’s honey, warm hay and chamomile; it’s gold dust on tarnished pewter; it’s dawn light on the soft cheek of a sleeping lover; it’s honeysuckle blossoms on the gravel after heavy rain; it’s a kintsugi bowl of bronze tears. Tasting this, I want to say, ‘Johanna Brandt, meet Lindsey Stirling; Lindsey Stirling, meet Johanna Brandt. You have everything in common’. Outstanding. [Tamlyn Currin, 23/07/2021]

Daniel Grigg NR

Lemon straw colour with a clean nose of tropical ripe fruit and orange blossoms. We smell here some citrus fruit zest, baked apple, marzipan and spices from ginger and lemon pepper. On the palate there is the layered complexity of some nuttiness from the barrel maturation with bruised apple, peach and nuances of wild yeast and eartyness. Pickling spices and dried peach come through with a fine minerality. Beautifully balanced acidity and intense core. [Daniel Grigg, 01/03/2019]