Alheit Vineyards
By David Keck
Sometimes you need to treat yourself. Like when it’s 2020 and we’re still in the middle of a pandemic and the upcoming election is causing you anxiety. Now is the time to drink a bottle of wine that reminds you of joy, light, and old vine Chenin Blanc. A while ago I coined the hashtag #cheninblanchonkytonkbadonkadonk and it still makes me smile, much like the grape variety itself.
Chenin finds its ancestral home in the Loire Valley, a glorious place filled with Disney-inspiring castles and caves stacked with iconic wine. In the 17th century the Dutch brought the vine to South Africa and this country now has some of the oldest and gnarliest plantings of Chenin Blanc to be found anywhere in the world.
Which brings us to our Wine Of the Week!
Allow us to introduce Chris and Suzaan Alheit of Alheit Vineyards.
This husband and wife team has traveled the world, making wine and harvesting grapes in many different climates and cultures. They now produce their own wines in Hemelrand, a mountain farm on the Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge in Walker Bay. Grapes are whole-bunch pressed, no enzymes, sulphur, or yeast are used in fermentation, which mostly happens in neutral oak barrels.
We currently have two bottlings in stock from the Alheit Family, with more available.
The first is the 2018 Cartology. Cartology, a blend of mostly Chenin Blanc with a small percentage of Semillon, is rich, concentrated, and expresses what the Western Cape has to offer. The grapes are harvested from several plots of dry-farmed (not irrigated) bush vines averaging 30 years old, with many plots between 40 and 50 years old. This wine is meant to be the flagship offering of the Alheit family, released every year as a snapshot of these old vines in any given vintage.
The second wine has become one of our favorite bottles of Chenin available. Magnetic North 2018 is Chenin Blanc from a truly outstanding vineyard that is a few degrees off true North from the Alheit winery—basically magnetic North. Planted in iron-rich sand over clay at 520 meters, these 30+ year old Chenin vines are own-rooted and yield very little, highly concentrated fruit. It is simultaneously rich and lean, spicy and savory with classic Chenin Blanc candied fruit and lifted, floral aromatics. It has acid, alcohol, and a touch of oxidative character from neutral oak. It pairs with everything on the richer spectrum that calls for white wine (oven roasted chicken, slow roasted pork shoulder, or even white fish with a rich beurre blanc come to mind), and is a delicious wine to drink by itself.
A momentary digression about decanting—there are definitely white wines that benefit from decanting (even some sparkling, honestly), and these two fall in that category. Throw the wine in a decanter (feel free to do so somewhat aggressively…i.e. dump them), and feel free to put the decanter in the fridge, although these both show best just below cellar temperature, around 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Alheit wines are not INexpensive, but they are truly wonderful and worth the expense to enjoy something great right now, or to lay down for a number of years for that special occasion.