2024 Sadie Family - Semillon Swartland Kokerboom (750ml)

Eben Sadie is one of the defining figures of modern South African wine, having built his reputation in the Swartland around a singular focus on site-specific, old-vine bottlings rather than broad regional blends. His Old Vine Series tracks down forgotten vineyards across the Cape, and the wines that result, including his celebrated Columella and Palladius blends, are widely regarded among the finest being made in the country today. Kokerboom takes its name from the quiver trees that dot the remote, rugged terrain where its grapes are grown.

The vineyard sits high in the Citrusdal Mountains on weathered Table Mountain sandstone, a demanding site reached only after a multi-hour journey each picking day. It is co-planted with roughly eighty percent white Semillon and twenty percent red-skinned Semillon Gris, harvested and pressed together as a single field blend. Following a gentle whole-bunch pressing, the wine ferments and ages for about a year in old foudre, a method chosen to preserve texture without adding oak flavor.

The 2024 vintage shows light wet wool and earthy aromas, with a spicy entry marked by ginger and a bright, sapid finish. Classic waxy lanolin and beeswax notes run beneath a more linear, refined structure than in past years. Pour it with grilled langoustine, roast pork, or a firm sheep's milk cheese.