9 August 2020
Few things make me more excited than a new round of vintages from Ntsiki Biyela. This week, I was fortunate enough to be swaggering about town with 4 of them, which is in fact all of her wines; Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and Umsasane a red blend of Cabernets Sauvignon and Franc, and Petit Verdot. Ntsiki, in case you didn’t know this, was South Africa’s first female, African wine maker in that nation’s some 350 years of making wine. She grew up in Zululand and was a bright student, enough so that in post-apartheid ZA, South African Airlines granted her a scholarship to Stellenbosch University to study Wine Making. I’m not writing her bio here, so google her when you are done with this masterpiece. There are loads of articles about her, including a Wikipedia page, my ambition in life, as it happens. So, the 2019 vintage of this Sauvignon blanc is a sort-of return to the boldness of this wine, and by all accounts a return to this being the wine that really knocks peoples socks off. Last vintage, after a change to her barrel aging regiment, the Chardonnay stole the limelight from the Savvy. This year, she has continued with that regiment, solidifying that wine’s world class greatness, whilst also improving the salability by putting it in a Burgundy bottle, thank god. Meanwhile, the previous vintage of Sauvignon was softer, albeit no less complex and stunning, it kind of got overshadowed by its voluptuous sibling. Flash to 2019, and the Savvy is zesty and in your face, lime juice and zest, fresh green apples, pomelo, fresh herbs, and a hint of underripe honeydew, and all are still slightly, tightly wrapped up in a pleasant bundled, secured by teeth-chattering, mouth-watering acidity, that screams of the southern seas and their powerful winds. This is an apperatif wine, perhaps with salad or ceviche, but probably best real cold, on a really hot day. I texted Ntsiki in the middle of my first tasting, during my first day out with these wines, to tell her how much I and my client were smitten, and of course, she was as sweetly humble and matter-of-fact as she always is; literally just pleased to be brining joy to others. Look for more greatness in future vintages of this and all of her wines.