Granietsteen Old Vine Chenin Blanc 2018

Scions of Sinai is the label of Bernhard Bredell, a seventh-generation winemaker from a family with over 160 years of wine history in the Lower Helderberg, southern Stellenbosch. Named Tim Atkin MW’s Young Winemaker of the Year in his 2019 SA Special Report, Bernhard operates from a small cellar built in 1850 by his great-grandfather and focuses on old-vine, organic, dry-farmed vineyards with minimal intervention in the cellar. The Granietsteen (‘Granite Stone’) Old Vine Chenin Blanc 2018 is sourced from a single block planted in 1978 on south-east-facing slopes of Sinai Hill, Stellenbosch, only 3.5km from False Bay. Dry-farmed bush vines grow in weathered decomposed granite soils. The wine is macerated for six days on skins and barrel-fermented on lees. It shows beeswax, lemon pith, wild herbs, and acacia honey, with a wonderfully mineral, saline, and taut palate. Production is only 812 bottles.