Strandveld's extraordinary white blend
2008 Strandveld Vineyards Adamastor, Elim, South Africa (£16.00, Specialist Vineyards, 020-8969 9896, email
info@specialistvineyards.com
).
I have recently tasted two white South African wines which have really set the standard for all other Cape whites, and they should also sound a warning shot across the bows of the rest of the keen newcomers to the global, top flight wine game.
Strandveld's extraordinary sauvignon blanc/semillon blend is incredibly herbal, cool and racy, with the sort of flavour concentration and minerality that you only find in A Grade vineyards.
Elim is a relatively cold region in South Africa, benefiting from chilly ocean winds. The sauvignons from here always have an attack and piercing lime juice notes which send shivers down my spine.
The clever move with Adamastor is to combine this ice-pick sauvignon with leesy, creamy, mildly oaked semillon, from white quartzite soils, which brings green fig and meadow flower notes to the mix.
Wine-maker Conrad Vlok is a perceptive chap and it is his palate that must take the credit for getting the utmost elegance and integrity from his vineyards and vines. Comparable to the wines of Cotat in Chavignol, Schloss Gobelsburg in Austria and John Forrest in Marlborough, this is a great wine!
• Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year. (see
www.matthewjukes.com
).