Spice Route Tarragon Old Vine Chenin Blanc 2024
Layered aromas of fresh pineapple, peach and fennel on the nose. The palate also shows notes of lemon, and lime peel. It benefits from a full, creamy mouthfeel from the time spent in oak.
The fruit for this Chenin Blanc is sourced from vineyards planted in 1978 in the Swartland. The vines are planted on a south-east facing slope and are dry farmed, yielding small thick-skinned berries. The soils are predominantly koffieklip (decomposed granite and iron-rich clay), known for producing rich and concentrated wines.
The grapes were harvested by hand, destalked and gently pressed before settling for 48 hours in stainless steel tanks. The juice was then transferred to 500 litre French oak barrels (12% new), for fermentation. The wine spent 8months in barrel before bottling, enhancing the wine’s naturally rich texture and aromatic complexity.
| RRP | £19.99 |
| Bottle size | 75cl |
| Vintage | 2024 |
| Alcoholic strength | 13.5% |
| Country | South Africa |
| Region | Coastal Region |
| Subregion | Swartland |
| Grapes | Chenin Blanc 100% |
| Residual sugar (g/l) | 4.2 |
| Vegetarian | Yes |
| Vegan | Yes |
| Organic | No |
| Biodynamic | No |
| Closure | Screwcap |
| Winemaker | intensity of fruit that makes this region so exciting. |
Charles Back was an early pioneer in the Swartland, founding Spice Route there in 1998 after tasting an exceptional Sauvignon Blanc and immediately buying the land on which it grew. “Without [Charles]…the Swartland would still be regarded as a rural backwater”, wrote Tim Atkin MW, who awarded the winery ‘Cru Bourgeois’ status in his South Africa Classification in 2019. Today, the Swartland is the source of many of South Africa’s outstanding wines, and Spice Route remains one of its best and most credible producers. This is largely because they own all their own vineyards, driven by a belief that that producing exceptional wine begins in the vines. Their vineyard holdings are comprised of 100 hectares in Malmesbury and Darling. The former, all bush trained and planted on Malmesbury shale and red clay subsoils, give the fruit grown there an intensity that makes this region so exciting.
Winemaker Charl du Plessis has been with Charles since 2002 and knows the region intimately. Charles is keen to capture the flavours and structure of the outstanding fruit he has grown. In fact, despite the desert-like conditions of the region, the vines are never irrigated.
