2022 AVA Chenin Blanc
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Tasting notes
Opening to aromas of yellow apple and fresh lemon blossoms, the 2022 AVA Chenin Blanc is complex, layered and freshly expressive. Medium-bodied and with energetic acidity, the palate is succulent and complex, making me crave cheeses and fresh shellfish. It's a delightfully lingering wine that begs me to come back for more. I can't put down my glass.
Critic scores
Average Score
Tamlyn Currin, jancisrobinson.com
Anthony Mueller, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
'This vineyard is a shit show’, Donovan Rall tells me. 'Really ugly. You drive past it and think, "who the hell has neglected that so badly?!" We have done everything! Manure, mulching, special pruning, you name it. Some vines lose their leaves, some vines just die (and it's not even that old!). Some bunches will have raisins, some will have green grapes, and it's a total mess at harvest. But the wine is somehow beautiful.' Roughly 70/30 schist/granite soils. Spontaneously fermented and aged entirely in used, 400-litre oak barrels. Around 1,300 bottles. Spine tingling. Like holding the moon in your mouth. Like salt spray on grass dunes. Like wild flowers pressed into sea glass. Tarragon, angelica, cumin chiselled into cold apple and kohlrabi. Minerality seeps salty tingles through the fruit. Acidity, craquelure fine, runs an invisible mesh through the wine. There is a quiet but magnificent beauty in this wine. Rall is the master of tension and understated complexity. (TC)
About the producer
Working with fruit from the Swartland, Piekenierskloof, Darling and Stellenbosch, Donovan Rall is one of South Africa’s top winemaking talents. He created his own label in 2008, while working alongside Eben Sadie, and now consults on various projects as well as making his exception Rall wines.