Cat’s Cradle 2023
Chenin blanc
Tasting Notes
Swartland Chenin blanc needs no introduction, having long assumed its place among the world’s key expressions of the grape variety. Langkloof, still the core of this wine, is an old bush vine Chenin blanc vineyard planted on the granite slopes of the Paardeberg that belongs to the Roussouw family. A small portion of the wine now comes from Nuweland on the other side of Malmesbury where the deep red soils impart a depth of honeyed fruit to the wines.
Picking is done with a clear eye on the acidity of the crop which can fall away dramatically during the harvest due to the paucity of these granite based soils.
This is a very clear and bright expression of Chenin blanc, with aromas of Chinese pear, yellow apple, and lime leaves. A rich, beeswaxy palate is full of salty almonds, light honey and elderflower. The finish is long, textured and pithy. This is a wine that will reward some time in the cellar to allow its full aromatic expression to develop.
Nuts & Bolts
Chenin blanc – Swartland – 44 year old vineyard on decomposed granite, 42 years old on iron-rich sands
Residual sugar – 3.10 g/L
Total acidity – 6.0 g/L
pH 3.32
About The Wine
The 2022/23 growing season started with a relatively warm and dry winter, with lots of rain in December. Luckily we avoided the worst of this as well as the hail that hit some areas, so we were set for a relatively cool ripening period with a good crop of small berried fruit. The Paardeberg portion was off long before the late February rain started to fall. The Malmesbury portion did hang through one shower of rain, but on balance I think it was the right decision to push through for a bit more ripeness here and we didn’t see any significant damage from the rain.
Chenin blanc on granite is something that we have worked with for all the years that we have been making our Thorne and Daughters wines, though Cat’s Cradle was only first released in 2017 as a single vineyard wine from the granite soils of the Paardeberg. This year sees the inclusion of the Nuweland parcel from its deep red iron-rich soils. It brings some fruit density and purity to the granite portion which can sometimes be a little austere in its youth.
We’ve kept our winemaking simple and natural, as we have no desire to stand between the vineyard and its expression as a wine in the glass. The grapes are whole-bunch pressed in an old basket press and there are no additions of sulphur dioxide made on the juice. A rough settling follows pressing after which the wines undergo natural alcoholic and malolactic fermentation in old oak barrels. We add some sulphur dioxide late in the winter, and then again at bottling, keeping the level of sulphur dioxide as low as possible. The result is wines that show tension without losing their suppleness and core, and wines that will reward time in the cellar.