Description
CELLAR INFORMATION A cool season and moderate weather conditions in most regions during harvest time slowed down ripening, which gave vines the opportunity to develop stunning flavour and colour. Harvest time was delayed by 10 to 14 days this year. The 2022 wine crop is more than 5% less than the 2021 season, but still larger than the five-year average. Early cultivars were harvested at good flavour and sugar concentrations, with lower acidity and higher pH. Later cultivars benefited from dry, moderate temperatures during ripening, which led to full ripening at good sugar and alcohol levels. As there is no mountains or hills in that area, a salty air blows in from the ocean – roughly 35km away – during the evenings. This creates a fogginess that lingers during the night and when the sun rises the next morning, a Kelpy seaspray is left behind and eventually is dried by the hot sun on the vines. This results in the salinity that can be tasted.
Naude Wines
Naudé Wines is the culmination of a journey that began more than 30 years ago. Since that first harvest I’ve worked all over the world hoping to craft wines that tell a story of time and place. I love the diversity we have in South Africa. Not just of the people but the soils the microclimates and the wine varietals that thrive under their own unique conditions. I’m fortunate to have been introduced to a few of these vineyards and work with some of the wonderful grapes that they produce many of these from certified old vines.
The grapes on these vines are storied complex and unique. Each year they represent something different – whatever nature allows them – and with any luck I don’t get in the way.
Location
Location of Naude Wines in West Coast
VINEYARD INFORMATION The soil is 100% sand and with that comes the opportunity to make use of flood-irrigation whereas the whole vineyard gets flooded, allowing the water to filter down through the sand into the deep roots of the vine. Picked in small crates, from the truck and straight into whole-bunch pressing. Natural fermentation started after about 3 days. Thereafter wine was kept on the lees for as long as possible, because that is where the “magic” happens as complex flavours and texture develops. Because nature has already done the work, the winemaking process is kept as natural as possible with minimal interference.
Reviews
JancisRobinson.com 17/20
Certified Heritage Vineyards (1983 and 1988). A brand-new cuvee for Ian Naude (who usually sticks to varietal wines). 20% Colombard from a vineyard planted in 1988 and 80% Chenin from a vineyard planted in 1983. Beautiful nose – grilled grapefruit peel, orange blossom. In typical Ian Naude style, it’s a pared-back-to-essentials wine with a bony structure verging on spartan. It’s like tasting the salt wind that blows across the vineyard and sucking on the rocks that shape the roots. The acidity has so much tension and salinity – like crunching sea water. Apples. Apples in the sea. A touch of sage dust and pineapple skin. Lime zest. And a finish that is rigid with tension. One mouthful of this and all I want is bowls of oysters, marcona almonds and gordal olives. [Tamlyn Currin, 24/02/2024]
Greg Sherwood 97
This stunning new white blend from Naude Family Wines represents the culmination of many years of work Ian Naude has spent constructing and perfecting intricate, complex and age worthy white blends. More latterly, Ian has built an iconic reputation for some of the most eye-catching Old Vine Chenin Blancs produced in South Africa before moving his attention to championing Old Vine Colombard vineyards up the West Coast. This new white draws on all Ian s experience and expertise to assemble an incredibly fresh, tight knit, minerally driven white wine. A blend of 83% Chenin Blanc from a vineyard planted in 1988 and 17% Colombard from a vineyard planted in 1985, has seen Ian create his first new white blend since 2010 from these two noble West Coast Vredendal vineyards. Crystalline and fresh in the glass, the aromatics show incredibly subtle notes of lemon peel zest, grapefruit, white peach, honeydew melon and Granny Smith apples with underlying hints of dried guava roll, sweet herbs and cream soda rock candy. Fresh, intense and mouth coating, this is an intriguing white blend that combines the vibrancy and exuberance of Old Vine Colombard with the more herbal, mineral and textural aspects of Chenin Blanc. Undoubtedly, the standout features remain the incredible balance, seamless texture and maritime kelpy salinity. Like all of Ian s red and white wines, his attention to detail is simply extraordinary, marking this white blend as one of the most exciting and thought-provoking new releases on the South African white wine landscape since possibly the launch of Eben Sadie s Old Vine Skerpioen. Drink and enjoy its freshness on release and revisit over the next 10 to 15+ years. [Greg Sherwood, 13/10/2023]
Neal Martin 93
The 2023 White Blend Soutbos is a blend of 84% Chenin Blanc and 16% Colombard, which is whole bunch pressed and kept on the lees for as long as possible in used oak barrels. It has a complex bouquet that unfurls in the glass with hints of yellow plum, wild fennel and just a hint of lemongrass. Fine delineation. The palate is where the action is at the moment: wonderful tension, a killer line of acidity, taut and linear with a minerally, marine-influenced finish. I can see this aging with real style. Excellent, but just four barrels were made. FYI, the name translates as "salt bush" as Naude finds such salinite in the wine. [Neal Martin, 25/08/2023]
Producer Profile
Ian Naudé’s wines are unlike anything else.
His range of wines are made up of esoteric pockets of old and new vines that tell a story about South African heritage. He did so fearlessly, believing that South African wine, if made honestly, and without compromise can come to rival the finest wines in the world. And slowly the international wine cognoscenti have started believing it too, as demonstrated by their rave reviews year-on-year.
