Here & There

South Africa famously produces wines that are great value for money and these Here & There wines seems crazily inexpensive, even by those standards. This one, from Swartland, is the definitive crowd pleaser, with its bright red fruit and spicy seasoning. There’s depth and complexity for those that take time to look for it but really this is all about pleasure.’ A Wine Merchant Top100 Wine, May 2023.

With the recent duty rise adding a £1 to most bottles on the shelf. It seemed like a good opportunity to stock up on one my favourite every day wines from this years Wine Merchant Magazine Top 100. 

This might be the last of the great £10 wines we see for a while so why not pick up a bakers dozen: 6x Swartland Red, 6x Grenache Blanc +1 FREE bottle of my choice for just £120.

Thank you for requesting a booking form for English Wine Week – In store pour.

We are currently only accepting a maximum of two tickets per subscriber. Please fill out the form below and we will get back to you.

Tickets are £20 per person.

Chanzy reviewed as one of the Top 25 Producers in the Cote Chalonnaise.

timatkin.com

Christy Canterbury MW has been visiting Burgundy every year since 2004, often spending several months getting under the skin of this ancient winemaking region.

So a top 25 ranking from the 100s of exceptional producers in the region is worth a second look.

Ten years ago serving burgundy when having someone over for dinner might have been considered the norm, nowadays you’re more likely to be asked if you’re hosting angel-investors who are picking up the tab.

Drinking Chanzy is bit more like the old days; their Rully vineyards stretch for about four kilometers to where it adjoins the Mercurey vineyards. Pinot Noir is in the minority but have a beautiful liveliness to them.

Clos de Bellecriox faces gently north and is almost always the last vineyard to be picked. With record breaking temperatures affecting the region, this is a significant advantage.

The 2021 vintage has a tight structure, but retains that classic seductive mix of red and black fruits that defies its  £30 price point. As it matures it should develop nicely, we think this has lots of potential over the next five years – but it’s worth highlighting that part of the joy of Chanzy, is that it produces wines that are made to be drunk and not cellared by angel-investors.

The offer: This is to be a delightful wedding wine for one of our customers, so I’ve added a couple of extra cases on our delivery from France that will save you about £50 a case on the shelf price.

Signature Old Vine White 2021 Offer

This was one of the most sought after wines at our Christmas tasting. The new 2022 vintage lands soon and with quite a price rise in store we’ve thrown our arms around the remaining 2021 vintage – which those of you who tried it in December will testify, is nothing short of brilliant and another six months in bottle has only improved it.

Founded by Chris and Andrea Mullineux in 2007, this winery is now one of the most lauded in South Africa. Named ‘Winery of the Year’ five times by the Platter Guide in 2014, 2016, 2019, 2020 and 2023, Mullineux were also Tim Atkin MW’s ‘South African Winemakers of the Year’ in 2016. They chose the town of Riebeek-Kasteel, just west of Malmesbury in the Swartland, for its old vineyards on granite and schist soils, reasoning that, with such quality fruit, they would be able to make outstanding wines. It is an understatement to say they have been proved right.

Mullineux Signature, Old Vines Swartland White Blend 2021

£159 per six – very limited stocks before the new 2022 vintage arrives RRP £33.49SAVE OVER £40 per case

As always with great wines, the story starts in the vineyard. The Swartland is warm and dry in the summer and benefits from a cooling afternoon breeze from the Atlantic Ocean, which borders the Swartland to the West. Disease pressure is low, which, in turn, means spraying is kept to a minimum. While the trend in much of the rest of the world is to reintroduce native plants to vineyards to ensure a more balanced ecosystem, the fashion for monoculture in the 1970s and 1980s bypassed the Swartland. As a result, most of the vineyards that Chris and Andrea own and lease are planted amid native species like fynbos. These provide a home for native insects, which in turn act as predators of other insects that can damage the vines. Once again, this enables spraying to be kept to a minimum.

The Old Vines White is sourced from seven different low-yielding vineyards in the Swartland, with 62% Chenin Blanc being supplemented by 10% Clairette Blanche, 9% Viognier, 7% Grenache Blanc, 6% Semillon Gris, and 6% Verdelho. 

The winemaking is style is whole bunch pressing and fermentation in barrel with 100% malolactic. It is aged for 11 months in a combination of old French oak 500-litre barrels and 2,000-litre foudre.