Olifantsberg Roussanne 2024
£18.95
The wine
Delicate, inviting aromas of white peach, white blossom and spicy coriander and ginger lead to a fresh, crisp palate with lovely balance and an intriguing pithy note on the finish.
Roussanne is the most difficult of the white Rhône varieties: prone to oxidation, erratic in yield and late to ripen, which is why it is so rarely bottled alone. It gives a honeyed, herbal weight nothing else quite provides. Very few South African producers attempt it, and fewer still on its own.
The producer
Olifantsberg
View all Olifantsberg winesOlifantsberg lies on the slopes of the Elephant Mountain in the Breedekloof, an inland valley in the Western Cape that has long supplied fruit to others and only recently begun making its name in its own right.
The estate's holdings climb the mountainside on decomposed shale and sandstone, and altitude is what makes the site work: the Breedekloof floor is hot, but these vineyards sit high enough to catch cooler air and hold their acidity. Winemaker Elizma Visser has built the range around Rhone varieties and old-vine Chenin Blanc, which is an unusual combination and a well-judged one for this ground.
South Africa's old Chenin plantings are among its greatest assets, dry-farmed bush vines that crop very little and give real concentration, and the Cape has more Chenin than the Loire itself. The Soul of the Mountain wines are the flagship pair, named The Matriarch and The Bull, and they are made only in vintages that warrant them.
