Avondale Anima Chenin Blanc Paarl, South Africa – 2022

This impressive 100% Chenin Blanc was organically grown on 20-40 year old vines on sandstone soils. The grapes were hand-picked, then wild-fermented and matured for a further 12 months on their lees in a mix of clay amphorae and 500l French oak barrels.

Wow! A kaleidoscope of flavours of melon, pineapple, peach, lime and a hint of beeswax honey overtake your palate. The wine is dense and feels quite full bodied and rounded from its time in oak barrel, but there is a vibrant, soulful underlying acidity and minerality which animates the wine and supports the wine’s name – “Anima” means soul in Latin! 13.5% alc.

Enjoy with Saldanha Bay mussels and heirloom tomatoes, roasted prawns, paprika oil, chorizo and angel hair

1,700 cases were produced. Drink now – 2031

Avondale Wine Estate is situated in the Paarl region, about 60km northeast of Cape Town and 40km from the nearest ocean. On the whole, Paarl is warmer than the Cape wine districts, but it has many microclimates. Avondale’s vineyards are situated on the southern slopes of the Klein Drakenstein Mountains, where cooling winds blow through the vines and the average temperature is 4C less than in the town of Paarl 4km away. The mountain slopes also receive fairly high rainfall of around 1,000mm per year, which mainly falls in winter. The soils here are very varied, with 13 different soil types, all quite poor with lots of rocks, producing low yields of very concentrated grapes. Certain soils are suited to certain grape varieties, and different locations give different characteristics to the same grape variety. So each batch of grapes from different plots is fermented and matured separately in order to maximise the unique character of each plot. Fermentation using natural yeast is a slow process, often taking up to 12 months to complete. The wines are then left for another six months before the batches are blended and bottled. This slow, natural winemaking process gives the wines extra texture and depth and preserves the core fruit flavours, giving the wines excellent ageing potential. 2022 is their current vintage and was recently released, only when Johnathan considered his wines to be perfect for drinking now.