One has to be a little bit crazy to grow Chenin Blanc in Elgin. Chenin needs hot temperatures and dry wind, as it is very prone to diseases. But when your soil type is right and you are crazy and passionate enough, like Koen is, the result is astonishing.
Sarah Raal is grown on ferricrete soils, at the top of the Spioenkop koppie.
Not only is this Chenin atypical because it is grown in Elgin and on this soil, but it is also made 100% in stainless steel tanks (hence unwooded). This wine is lean, tight, elegant and mineral - a wine for chefs and foodies.
Tim Atkin: 94pt
Christian Eedes: 93/100
Alc 13.41% - T/A 7.3 – R/S 2.21 – pH 3.04
The story behind the name: Sarah Raal belonged to a wealthy Boer and farmers family whereby her brothers and father went to combat during the Anglo-Boer War, and her mother and younger siblings to concentration camps. Being left alone, she decided to take up weapons and join the war together with the Boers against the British.