Today it is time for
Steen! Steen, besides Pinotage, might be the top-dog grape varietal of South
Africa. In case you guys don't know. In other places on our lovely planet this
varietal globetrotter is called Chenin Blanc. In fact South Africa is the largest grower (approx. 19000 hectares) of this very varietal. I've chosen today's
wine because it is highly proliferated, reasonable and made by a
quite renowned wine producer. The Chenin Blanc Steen op Hout 2011
from Stellenbosch (and some Swartland material) viticulture area is
the entry level wine of Mulderbosch Vineyards which is definitely
more famous for its Chardonnays and Sauvignon Blancs. Since the dawn
of the cooperation between Larry Jacobs, a career changer from
physicians to wine, and the winemaker Mike
Dobrovic, Mulderbosch started to gain quite some reputation for their
crisp and reliable white wines. As I've mentioned earlier, their
Chenin Blanc is their bread and butter wine. Ment to be
uncomplicated, fresh, crisp, pleasing, stimulating (for more) and
probably just ... joy providing. A classic summer wine after all! Let's
check out how I got along with it …
Super bright and
slightly colourless hue with a few carbon acid leftovers. Nothing
special and nothing surprising. The nose showed convincing fragrances
of mostly juvenile red'ish apples including their stems, lime zest (slightly candied), unclear
tropical fruit components, a few semi tart almonds, mild grass and
some traces of dilluted reserved petrol. Clearly - Chenin Blanc! And even more
clearly not a perfumed poser or show-off new world style Chenin Blanc. The
taste showed nearly congruent characteristics. Besides its apples, its lime
zest and the grassy-almodish petrol flavours I was under the impression to
taste quite a lot of very ripe or even overripe gooseberries tart and guava.
The substantial fruitful character of this Chenin Blanc seemed expressiv and well
balanced. To the finish ... maybe there were a bit too many sweet'ish traces on my
palate. The underlying mineral characteristics weren't that obvious
or elaborate or maybe even present. This time it wasn't a problem for
me at all because this wine was supposed be, and indeed was, a clean, easy and crisp
summer-joy-whatever-and so on-party-wine without being over-challenging (nor
silly simple). Anyway, nice and very convincing so la-la *** summer stuff with "classical" characteristics (even some aged ones), plenty of freshness, good quaffability and a decent
amount of exuberance potential.
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