Alheit Vineyards | Sadie Family Wines | Vilafonté
Live Virtual Auction, 10 October 2021
Fine Wine
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
About this Item
Chris and Suzanne Alheit set the wine world on fire with their maiden 2011 Cartology receiving 96 points from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate. Aiming to harness the best old vineyards across the Cape, the Cartology offered a textured old-vine Chenin Blanc Semillon blend with startling purity and depth. Passionate and focused on the expression of place, tiny, long-forgotten parcels were added to the range, and are today South Africa’s most profound white wines. We auction maiden vintages of Magnetic Makstok on the legendary ‘Skurfkop’ in the Citrusdal area, Huilkrans in the Paardeberg, La Colline in Franschhoek, and, extremely rare Radio Lazarus in Stellenbosch.
The 2013 Magnetic North was a Platters 5* winner and is only their 2nd single-vineyard release with merely 824 bottles produced.
Magnetic North is a single origin Chenin Blanc wine. Since it’s maiden vintage in 2013, this wine has become a perennial star in our line-up. Every vintage, it manages to combine power and finesse in a way very few other Chenin vineyards from anywhere (not just the Cape) are able to do. From the legendary ‘Skurfberg’ area, South Africa’s ‘grand cru’ site for Chenin Blanc. These vineyards are in the Citrusdal Mountain ward, situtated in the mountain wilderness of the West Coast.
The vineyard lies a few degrees off true north from the cellar, roughly on magnetic North. The name implies distance and exploration. It implies a true course of action or movement. It implies an attractive force causing them to drive miles and miles for there vines. There is plenty of iron in the soil, which is a magnetic element, so that fit nicely too. In physical reality, Magnetic North is always moving, it never remains in the same place, so there is the added implication of a mysterious unattainable target.
Critics Ratings
‘Old, ungrafted (‘makstok’), dryland chenin from Olifants river. ‘13 uncompromising & tight but its web of scent, textures & flavours already combines austerity, profundity, subtle dry power & generous deliciousness. Sweet fruit strained through stone. All these old-oak matured.’ – Platter’s SA Wine Guide 2015, 5*
‘Overall White Wine of the Year 2017. “We drive bloody miles and miles for these vines,” says Chris Alheit, referring to his new old-vine grape source in Citrusdal. But those miles are definitely worth it, for this is another stellar release from the Alheits, a varietal Chenin grown at 550 metres within 36 kilometres of the coast. It’s a taut, saline, almost austere wine, with ungrafted, old vine concentration, amazing minerality and length, subtle oak and a spicy, tapering finish. Drink: 2014-22.’ - Tim Atkin SA Special Report 2014, 97/100
‘The 2013 Magnetic North Mountain Makstok is 100% Chenin Blanc from 0.98 hectares of vine grown at 500 meters above sea level. It has a slightly more aromatic bouquet than the Cartology, but not toward fruit, rather towards lanolin, beeswax and yellow flowers. The palate is medium-bodied with crisp acidity (pH 3.27) rending this quite tense and focused. It is very understated with fleeting glimpses of chalk dust, pithy pear, and a touch of Japanese yuzu coming toward the Fino-tinged finish. Excellent – but it is not for those seeking fruit-driven Chenin. Only 824 bottles produced.’ – Neal Martin, Wine Advocate (October 2014), 91/100
‘The dry-farmed, old-vine Chenin for this comes from that extraordinary 'Skurfberg' region I visited up the west coast with Rosa Kruger, Eben Sadie and Tim James in January 2015. From the farmers up the road, I think. Pale straw. Very steely and austere with strong green-apple notes. Extremely youthful but it did open up in the glass.’ – Jancis Robinson (September 2015), 17/20
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