We continue with our series of South African producer releases, and today we have the pleasure of sharing an offer on the wines of David & Nadia. These Swartland wines make for some of South Africa’s best offerings and this is widely recognised both domestically and abroad. The four flagship wines are available to order, whilst the single vineyard Chenin blanc range is strictly on allocation. Please speak to us if you do not already receive an annual allocation.
Dear Reader,
With today’s release, David and Nadia now have twelve vintages under their collective belt. It is mightily impressive to see how much they have achieved in this space of time. Still very much at the heart of their production are the four vineyard-blend wines: Chenin blanc, ”Aristargos”, Grenache noir and ”Elpidios”. Last year we witnessed an overwhelming response to these wines and we ended up with no more wine to sell at the start of this year.
”[The 2021 vintage] would be our longest vintage to date with our region’s classic warm harvest days, but cooler night time temperatures which slowed ripening down in a positive way…The growing season leading to the 2021 harvest was mild and quite balanced with fairly late budding. We started experimenting with organic sprays on Paardebosch as well and continued with the biological farming approach that we had adopted in 2016.”
David and Nadia | June 2022
The David & Nadia flagship range is available as of today on a first-come, first-served basis and for as long as stock lasts. Special mention needs to be made of a limited number of 1.5-litre magnums of all four wines that we include in today’s release. David and Nadia only bottled around 500 magnums of each wine from this latest vintage. This really isn’t a lot when you consider the demand for the wines both here at home and overseas.
David & Nadia flagship range
Chenin blanc 2021 | W.O. Swartland | R 385 per bottle | R 780 per magnum
Aristargos 2021 | W.O. Swartland | R 385 per bottle | R 780 per magnum
Grenache noir 2021 | W.O. Swartland | R 385 per bottle | R 780 per magnum
Elpidios 2020 | W.O. Swartland | R 385 per bottle | R 780 per magnum
The 2021 vintage of Single Vineyard Chenin blancs welcome a fourth wine, ”Rondevlei”. Due to limited production of these wines, availability is on an allocation basis only with preference given to those customers who have supported the wines over the past few years and across the range. Please speak to us about your request and we will confirm availability.
David & Nadia Single Vineyard Chenin blancs
Hoë-Steen Chenin blanc 2021 | W.O. Swartland | R 795 per bottle
Skaliekop Chenin blanc 2021 | W.O. Swartland | R 795 per bottle
Plat’bos Chenin blanc 2021 | W.O. Swartland | R 795 per bottle
Rondevlei Chenin blanc 2021 | W.O. Swartland | R 795 per bottle
David & Nadia flagship wines in brief
Chenin blanc 2021
This wine is produced from eight different vineyards, planted between 1968 and 1986, all dry land farmed bush vines. The grapes were whole-bunch pressed and naturally fermented before spending eleven months in old neutral French oak barrels. Two components were fermented and matured in concrete (18% concrete in total) – one in a square concrete tank and the other in a concrete egg.
Aristargos 2021
The blend consists of 49% Chenin blanc, 9% Clairette blanche, 8% Sémillon, 7% Grenache blanc, 7% Roussanne, 6% Verdelho, 6% Viognier, 4% Marsanne and 4% Colombar (grapes from 19 different vineyards, picked on 21 different dates). The cornerstone of this wine is the old vine components of Chenin blanc, Sémillon, Clairette and Colombar. The grapes were whole-bunch pressed and naturally fermented before spending eleven months in old neutral French oak barrels. The grapes from the two Sémilllon vineyards were fermented on their skins for a week before being pressed and matured in a very old 2,500L foudre for a year. The Colombar was also fermented on the skins (for 5 days) and matured in an old oak barrel. One Chenin blanc component was fermented and matured in a concrete egg.
Grenache noir 2021
Carefully selected grapes from five vineyards go into the Grenache noir: a key vineyard situated in the Paardeberg planted in the early 2000s, a Paardeberg vineyard that was recently planted on the north-eastern side of the Langkloof valley overlooking the Aprilskloof, a vineyard planted in 2016 in the schist soils of the Kasteelberg, and finally a vineyard in the north of Malmesbury that David and Nadia have been working with since 2012. A significant portion of the wine (60%) was fermented and matured in concrete (60% whole-bunch). The juice was kept on the skins for four weeks prior to and during fermentation. A 60% whole bunches were used. The wine was pressed off and matured in a combination of old 500L neutral French oak barrels and a 2,700L concrete vessel for one year.
Elpidios 2020
Always a vintage behind the other three wines, the 2020 Elpidios is a blend of 38% Grenache noir, 36% Syrah, 10% Cinsaut, 9% Carignan and 7% Pinotage. There are twelve vineyards that make up the wine which are harvested in sixteen lots. The foundation of the blend is based on grapes grown in granite soils from the Paardeberg, blended with structured shale/schists from the east, clay rich soils from the north and iron rich soils from the west. Again, there is a component of the wine that was fermented and matured in a concrete vessel – both the Grenache and Syrah. The balance of the wine was matured in old 500 L neutral French oak barrels and a 4,100L foudre (for the Pinotage). There is about 50% whole-bunch on the Elpidios. Once in bottle, the wine is aged for a further 18 months before release.
