Davy says: Please welcome new columnist Leon Marks, who today explores some of the best Chenin Blanc money can buy!
My wine universe centres on France. There are some wines (fizz, Pinot Noir) where the best wines at any price point are French. There are some (Bordeaux blends, Syrah) where competitors in the New World can give the best a run for their money. Chenin Blanc seems to me to be in a third category where the best in the world now come from outside France. South African wine is just on a tear right now, and their Chenins are outstanding.
Four of us (including Davy and The Editor of this august organ) met at Cornus restaurant in London to try these out. It’s a restaurant I’d been meaning to try for some time after reading a comically rude, bad review in the Times. We had the six-course lunchtime tasting menu—£80 plus service, and I don’t think you’ll find better value in London. We sat outside on the terrace, which had a weirdly ski holiday vibe to it, none the worse for that.
The wines
Chenin Blanc Schist, 2021 Mullineux
13.5% abv. Pale straw colour. Reductive nose (though less than the last time I tried this wine). White of the flight and the meal. Honestly, we went in hard early. Fellow diners commented “fucking gorgeous,” “glorious precision,” “smooth as a baby’s arse.” This is a complete wine for sure, but it has got something to say and it is saying it clearly. There is some sort of parallel with the whites of PYCM—a flintiness and a kind of commitment to saying something. A fellow diner commented that wine should “ask questions of you.” This did.
Chenin Blanc Skaliekop 2021, David & Nadia
12.5% abv. Pale gold colour. Compared to the Mullineux—more expressive on the nose, greater balance, more well-behaved. But does it excite you? This wine grew up in a well-to-do household, has the right sort of education and knows how to dress in Basel and Klosters. It will never say the wrong thing, but does it excite? I think we tasted these wines in the wrong order—this is more than decent and any wine lover would be pleased to be served it. I’m just not grabbing you by the scruff saying you HAVE to try this. Two hours after initial tasting, this was still finishing assertively. If you had this in the cellar, you should be pleased.
Chenin Blanc Noa 2021, Rall
12% abv. Palest of all these. There is lightness here, delicacy, some discussion about precision. There is just a lack of intensity on the finish. You are left wanting ever so slightly more. A fellow diner commented that Australian Semillon can sometimes seem like this early in its life, but gains weight and character with time. Well, maybe. I wonder though if it just lacks the extraction and stuffing to go long term. Again — we drank these in the wrong order. If this was our first, we would have been more than pleased, and at the right price I would be more than happy to have a few of these, especially with the gentle 12% abv.
By all accounts, 2021 was a superb vintage in South Africa.
Chenin Blanc Granite 2017, Mullineux
13.5% abv. Pale gold. Some of the seductive energy of its 2021 stablemate but not quite as much. Fruit stones and rocks in here, as well as an almost delicate floral energy. Lovely feeling in the mouth. Great acid core and a lovely finish.
Chenin Blanc The 1947 Vines 2017, Kaapzicht Estate
14% abv. Gold colour. The wine that breaks the wine search engines. Epic nose to this. Someone said “smooth operator” and yes—this is classy, well-behaved, probably went to school with the Skaliekop, but does not need to rub your nose in it. There is still real energy there. This is benchmark SA Chenin Blanc to my taste—if you don’t like this, you don’t like SA Chenin Blanc.
Volnay 1er Cru Taillepieds 2017, Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey
Finally, some red. Lovely, joyous. Someone said “not one of the bad pinots” and yes, they are right. There’s a hint of coke float there, something from the oak and something maybe a little reductive—this is just delicate and elevated and gentle and easy to drink. Someone said “think of a kitten”. Well, I just did. On current market prices, this would be the most expensive wine of the lunch. I don’t think PYCM reds represent bad value in the world of Burgundy, but it just points to what exceptional quality and value South Africa is offering these days.
It’s hard to overstate just how successful this lunch was. For £30-60 per bottle, you are drinking as good white wine as exists on this planet. I mean, I still love chardonnay, and nothing moves my soul like an excellent white Burgundy — but who can afford that? A fellow diner pointed out that if you were in your twenties or thirties and starting to collect wine, going all in on South Africa would be a smart way to go.
Leon, do you have any views on how these will age? Will the Schist improve? How long does the 1947 Vines have left?
This is the right question! My sense is that these 21s in particular will have a long life ahead of them – I don’t really have a way of calibrating though. I reckon the 2017s are drinking as well as they ever will, but certainly not on the downslope so who knows…
Super notes from what was clearly a fabulous lunch. And a great theme too. Thank you
Or experience of Cornus was the polar opposite of the miserable bint who reviewed it for The Times. The food was wonderful, service perfect, the atmosphere was civilised and relaxed, and it was a total bargain.
My only complaint, and this is really picky as you have to know your onions to get this right, it’s that the sommelier presented the first three wines in the reverse order they should have been. If we hadn’t started with such a lambent entity of brilliance that was the Mullineux, the other two wines would have had more chance to shine. I think for a £30-ish (Noa) wine and £50-ish (Skaliekop) wine, they were wore lovely and worth every penny..
Great lunch, take A…. to Cornus ASAP!
Evocative and lively notes, Leon. What a fabulous tasting! A&B Vintners keep reminding me of this great Cornus free corkage offer but I can never find the right moment. Glad you had such a superb lunch there. No comments on what you ate?
I feel a failure to say this, but I cannot remember a single thing we ate!! Oh my ageing, psychotic memory. I recall every course pleasuring us immensely, and thinking £88 for a reasonably sized lunch at an excellent one star was quite the bargain.
If you have a hospital appointment😉 one afternoon soon, we’ll meet you there with a bottle of Côte-Rôtie Maison Rouge 2012 from Vernay – yet another one of the best lieu-dit of Côte-Rôtie! 😆
Thanks – the food was superb but we were really there to taste the wine…
Having visited a couple of times I think the tasting menu is the one to go for. A lot of care is given to the balance of the meal as a whole, not just the individual courses.
Nice notes Leon . A lunch I would loved to have attended and a valid point is noted in the last sentence re young people buying SA wine now . Most of the fine whites, as well as the reds, age really well so it is eminently sensible to stock up on these great wines now , whilst they are still relatively affordable.
If you are not buying South African wines (to drink when they are 10+) now, you either have more money than sense (this can be true even if one has very little money) or you are a filthy philistine.
We certainly ate and drank well! And next time…
Thank you for the precise and succinct notes. Very useful.
I think adding other voices to Elitist Review is a very good idea.
Thank you, Jonathan, I thought it was a good idea! I will still be writing; I have a post (some bits of which you may be familiar with;) appearing next Friday morning.
Leon, just to say thank you for your first post on Elitistreview. If the number of comments are anything to go by it has clearly been greatly appreciated! May there be many more in the future, until you knock up an AI that can stimulate all our writing styles so we don’t have to bother, of course… Mind you, I’ll be impressed if you can get an AI to emulate what’s coming next Friday!😉
Thank you, Leon!