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Tasting notes
This is the first wine poured in The Sadie Family portfolio tasting. The 2024 Citrusdal Mountain Die Distriksreeks Soldaat shows an earthy yet perfumed expression of Grenache with sour cherry, pomegranate and blue floral lift carried by sweet but firm tannins. Nervy and finely structured, the wine balances high-radiation ripeness with remarkable freshness from its site at 750 meters in elevation. Planted on quartz sandstone and mudstone in the Citrusdal Mountains, Soldaat demonstrates vintner Eben Sadie’s pursuit of Grenache grown in sites that deliver light without excessive heat. This was a complex vintage with not a lot of rain but less wind, which was positive. Aging sees 12 months in concrete tank only.
Critic scores
Average Score
Neal Martin
James Suckling
More reviews and scores
The maiden 2024 Sonvang, a field blend of varieties in Eben Sadie's nursery, certainly has one of the more exotic and out-there aromatics with scents of red fruit, hickory, struck flint… something almost volcanic about this. The palate is medium-bodied with pliant dark berry fruit, touches of white pepper, Provençal herbs and black truffle. Wonderfully balanced, granular in texture, insistent grip on the finish with a persistent finish, this is an outstanding debut.
Sliced strawberries, pomegranates, rose hips, orange rind and wet stones on the nose of this supremely elegant, fragrant red. Sour cherries, too. It’s medium-bodied, very fresh and silky, with very fine tannins, seamless but present. Persistent and salty at the end. Great expression of grenache. Fermented and aged in concrete. Drink or hold.
About the producer
Since he started making wine under his own name in 2000, Eben Sadie became a cult name in South Africa. The Swartland producer is best known for his flagship Columella and Palladius, but he also makes a range of whites and reds under the Old Vine Series, which became the District Series in 2025.