Wine Advisor
Alheit Vineyards, Cartology Bush Vines Chenin Blanc 2024
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Monica Larner
The Alheit Vineyards 2024 Cartology Bush Vines blends Chenin Blanc with 8% Semillon, the Chenin drawn from nine plots across the Cape, ranging from 40 to 60 years old, and the Semillon from vines nearing 90 years of age. Conceived as a study in mapping and terroir, Cartology assembles diverse soils and climates into a singular expression of the Western Cape. The 2024 vintage shows linear drive, salinity and freshness alongside textural richness and layered depth. Complex yet composed, it captures what Alheit describes simply as a white wine of the Western Cape. By uniting sites shaped by ocean winds, ancient soils and old vines, the wine reflects a distinctly South African identity grounded in both heritage and precision. This is a thrilling wine made in a larger production (with 22,510 bottles, plus 240 magnums made) at an affordable price.
About the Producer
In our vineyards much attention is paid to the farming, with an emphasis on careful pruning and suckering, diligent canopy work, and hand hoeing. We like to encourage healthy soil by cover cropping, mulching, and manuring. All our grapes are handpicked into small lug boxes and transported with care by us to our winery. In the cellar we use gentle whole cluster pressing, hardly settling (we like very cloudy raw juice), no additions to the raw juice, wild fermentation in either cement eggs, clay pots, foudres, or old barrels (various sizes). The wine is kept on lees for around twelve months, then rested in tank without fining for a further four months prior to bottling.
