GOLD for Villion Henning Chenin Blanc 2017

We are proud to announce that Villion’s Chenin Blanc scored a whopping 94 points in the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show. Their Chenin was one of only two gold medals that were awarded. Also truly proud for it to be ranked under the Top Ten white wines of the show!

With an interview with the winemaker Kobie Viljoen, we asked him what he found most exciting about making this wine…”There are so many exciting elements during the journey to the final wines. Elements like working with such an old vineyard, knowing when to pick a optimal ripeness, the different flavours that arise from spontaneous fermentation and how they add to reflect the true origin of the wine.

Then there’s knowing how long to keep the wine in the barrels, how much new oak and how much neutral oak to use, what percentage of skin-fermented Chenin to use to enrich the texture. It’s an exciting process” he tells us.

2017 was a dry year. The 4-year drought that the Western Cape experienced from 2015 to 2018 had a big impact on production. With this wine, in particular, the vineyard is not irrigated, so the fruit was intense and concentrated and an earlier pick was necessary to capture the freshness and acidity.

The wine is fermented spontaneously and in warm conditions, so the outcome was surprising. For this specific vintage, one of the barrels presented a potent granadilla flavour, which was carried through to the final wine.

We asked Kobie what he loves about this wine specifically, “I love the unique saline and oyster shell component of this vintage due to spontaneous fermentation. This combined with the peach and apricot nature of Chenin and the oak which underline the granadilla and sweet spice, make for a beautifully balance wine” he says.