Excellent South African Chenin Blanc at Cornus

IN A FIRST FOR ELITISTREVIEW, Leon Marks and Davy decided to write this boozy lunch extensive tasting up as a duo; one of us writing a note on a wine, and the other making any additional comments/disputes they feel need adding. This is an experimental format, please feel free to comment on what you feel about it at the end.

We do apologise for not taking many pictures.

Davy introduces

Almost exactly a year ago, four of us held a tasting of South African Chenin Blanc at Restaurant Cornus. We have very happy memories of this event, so we decided to repeat the experience.

There has been some talk in parts of the wine press that South African Chenin Blanc has not been ageing as well as one might have initially expected it would. This assertion surprised me. Our first tasting, and many other bottles drunk at home, suggested the wines were eminently capable of a minimum of medium-term evolution and improvement.

Consequently, fellow contributor Leon Marks and I decided to organise a follow-up tasting covering a range of vintages of South African Chenin Blanc from serious producers to see if it really did have problems lasting.

After a mystery fizz to start us off, our South African Chenin Blanc tasting began with a flight from the excellent 2017 vintage, then another from the also excellent 2021 vintage, a single intermezzo 2022 and the final Chenin flight was of 2023s.

To recover from tasting so many white wines, we had two red wines. It was only supposed to be one red wine, but we are all enthusiastic types. Both reds were remarkable (but in different ways).

This tasting took place at Restaurant Cornus, near Victoria in London. We have talked about this wonderful restaurant extensively. It is worth underscoring that the six-course lunch tasting menu represents one of, if not the great bargain of the London fine dining scene, and their enlightened corkage policy undoubtedly makes this at the top of the list if you have some fine bottles to pop.

As an aside, both authors of this piece are generally sceptical of theories of food and wine matching. As The Editor puts it: You eat. And you drink. However, the food served with our South African Chenin Blancs was remarkably sympathetic with the wines, and it was quite a revelation. Oh, serendipity is a happy thing, indeed!

Before we get onto the notes, Leon and my thanks go to Max, Richard and The Editor for providing wines, being excellent people to taste with, and for being first-rate human beings in general. Naturally, huge thanks to Restaurant Cornus for the first-class tasting conditions, brilliant food (that seemed better than ever to The Editor and me), and peerless service pouring our wines.

Leon introduces

We met for what is now a lovely summer tradition. Lunch at Cornus, enjoying South African Chenin Blanc, along with a red or two.

My first real ‘wow’ experience of South African Chenin Blanc was tasting the 2016 vintage of the Kaapzicht 1947 Vines, kindly shared by friend of Elitistreview Max Oldfield. I was blown away by the intensity, the structure and that kind of tension between analytical and hedonistic pleasure. Since then, I have been trying to round out my Chenin education. These lunches are a perfect mechanism for doing this.

At £90 plus service, the set lunch tasting menu must be one of the best value dining options in London. The new menu is truly excellent.

To add to the joy, the table next to us were readers of Elitistreview. They had heard about Cornus from a previous article. We got to share some glasses. It was a pleasant reminder of the conviviality and generosity of spirit that characterises the wine nerd community.

The tasting

Pop that mystery fizz!

Blanc de Noirs Brut English Sparkling Wine 2018, Albourne Estate

Leon notes:
Served blind by the proprietor. Pale colour. Lots of energy on the nose. Lots of vigorous bubbles. On the palate, opens with some fruit and breadth, with a sharp acid line to follow. Lots of acid, but not too much acid.

There is a certain intensity and complexity here. I tend to associate this with an oxidative character in Champagne. There is, however, no oxidation here. Indeed, this is fresh as a daisy. I am informed by more experienced tasters than me that this intensity may come from extended time on lees.

We are told it is a single variety. Well, Chardonnay obviously. No. In fact, Pinot Noir. Now the big reveal. This is not Champagne. It is, in fact, from East Sussex. It spent six years on lees. There is complexity and depth here for sure.

The back label says zero dosage. Do not believe this. The website has a much more credible 8 grammes per litre.

This is a well-made wine from good quality fruit that comfortably passes the ‘Roederer Collection’ test. If one can buy the platonic ideal of a grande-marque, non-vintage champagne for £35-40 per, any sparkling wine has to offer a compelling alternative. This was fab. As this is the current release, six bottles were duly ordered.

Davy comments:
Leon is spot on and I highly commend him for buying a six-pack. If you are sensible you will go to the Albourne Estate website and get a shed-load too.

Just a technical note. The grapes for this wine are grown on greensand. I waxed poetic about this in Five apsidal locations. This soil gives the Pinot Noir extra power that enables the base wines to survive and improve with six years of lees ageing.

My personal view is that this wine will age, for maybe five or so years more, and I have a couple of bottles put away to test this. I also have a bottle to drink with great pleasure in the proximate future.

Flight one

Chenin Blanc The 1947 Vines 2017, Kaapzicht Estate

Leon notes:
This is the third time I have tasted this wine. More colour than I was expecting (or remember). The consensus at the table is that this is skin contact rather than age. A fellow diner described this as having a ‘Loire density’. I do not have enough experience of Loire Chenin to really comment. But there is certainly depth here, a level of materiality which is very compelling.

It is, however, clean and fresh. Perhaps a hint of lanolin. But nothing unclean or unsavoury here.

Unlike its Mullineux flightmate, this seems fully ready to go. I do not get any sense of unrealised potential or excitement left coiled up, still in the wrapping. It surely has time ahead of it. But hard to imagine it getting better. With that said, I looked back at my notes from 2024 and 2025. I think it is, in fact, better than before.

The proprietor has previously complained that my notes on wines I love are sometimes shorter than those on wines I merely really like. Well, what more can one say? If you have these, drink them.

Davy comments:
I think ‘Loire density’ is disrespecting the fact that South Africa is the spiritual home of Chenin Blanc.

My only slight disagreement with Leon is I feel there is no rush with this wine. I do not think there is much improvement to come. However, there is far from a rush.

Apart from that, Leon and I are on the same page.

Chenin Blanc Granite 2017, Mullineux

Davy notes:
Wow, what a nose! One sniff and goosebumps erupted all over me! There is more dynamic tension here than in a Charles Atlas instruction book – thrilling, I tell you!

The tension is between a massively powerful set of mineral aromas and flavours, and the joyous, energetic vivacity of the wine. These components swirl and combine synergistically and create a profoundly complex entity, that is still eminently accessible for just sitting back and enjoying with hilarious delight.

There is tertiary development to this wine, its phenolic elements seem mostly resolved on the palate and it has a pleasing breadth to it. Energetic acidity is present but completely integrated into the wine.

However, it very strongly gives the impression that it has further to go and more to give. I would find it hard to resist bottles of wine so refulgent with pleasure as this South African Chenin Blanc is now, yet one can certainly keep this. It is still to peak!

You may have noticed that I rather liked this wine. It was, indeed, excellent. Lacking nothing in terms of complexity and enjoyment value, one is just not supposed to buy wines of this quality for the money these are released at.

The fact that it promises more, more I say, in the future speaks very well of the ageing potential of South African Chenin Blanc. I hope Leon is good enough to open more bottles of this flamboyantly classy wine with me over the years to come.

Leon comments:
Davy’s notes are spot on.

This wine really did everything that could be asked of it. Sparked a conversation about the producer. They seem to do texture very well in all their wines. I have four bottles left of this. I will try to ration them out over the coming years. Based on today’s showing, 2017 could be a very long-lived vintage for South African Chenin Blanc.

Flight two

Chenin Blanc Ava 2021, Donovan Rall

Leon notes:
This was fab. Just à point. There is intensity and length. But also, a lightness and delicacy I did not get from either the Mullineux or the Kaapzicht wines. They are wonderful producers. Sometimes I prefer their wines. But this somehow seems to be the canonical South African Chenin Blanc.

Ava is named after winemaker Donovan Rall’s daughter. It is grown on schist soils. The lighter Noa, tasted at our last Cornus Chenin-fest, is grown on granite.

Yellow stone fruits, just a hint of honey density on the finish. It has minerality and poise. But also a certain sensuality, and a real sense of place. And again, clean, clean, clean.

Interestingly, compared to the 2017 flight, this tasted fully ready to go. My instinct is that this will not age as well. No rush to drink these. But I cannot imagine any improvement either. It will be interesting to taste another bottle of this in a year or two and see how accurate my prediction was

Davy comments:
Spot on, Mr Marks! I feel there might be a little improvement to come, but apart from that, once again we are on the same page.

Chenin Blanc Schist 2021, Mullineux

Davy notes:
There was some suggestion on pouring this South African Chenin Blanc that it might be slightly flawed. I did not think so when I first sniffed it; I merely thought it quaquaversal due to being middle aged.

However, as so often happens, cork faults only get worse with air, and it became obvious that TCA was present in this wine. Very slightly corked – buggeration!

I got the feeling that underneath the cork-taint was a very serious, complex, stylish wine. This is also the impression that has betokened itself to me with bottles drank at home – I have loved them all. Those bottles, like the 2017 Mullineux Granite above, have not been shy about suggesting they have a superior plenitude in the cellar-time sack as well.

Leon comments:
I have mixed feelings about the performance of this wine. I had expected it to be wine of the lunch. This is the first bottle I have tasted which was not impeccable. Its poor performance gave the other wines the opportunity to show.

In the film Angels with Dirty Faces, James Cagney plays a gangster who is idolised by a gang of youths. When he finally faces the death penalty, he breaks down crying. He seemingly meets a coward’s death. The implication is that his old friend, a priest, persuaded him to do this. The aim was to keep the youths from following his criminal path.

In the same way, I rather felt that this typically magnificent wine was making way for the others to shine. Either way, its poor performance did not detract from a stellar lunch.

Intermezzo

Chenin Blanc The 1947 Vines 2022, Kaapzicht Estate

Davy notes:
Old vines really do make a difference to the overplus of complexity and plungingly deep aromas and flavours of the, already preternaturally gratifying, nature of South African Chenin Blanc. Winemaking sympathetic to the character of the vineyard undoubtedly helps here as well. I have never had less than an excellent Chenin from Kaapzicht, whatever the price-point.

Dizzyingly deep and charged with thrilling energy, this wine bellows a lusty ballad of good times with great people. I am so happy to taste this with chaps who understand quality. This is real, serious, and incredibly enjoyable quality.

Even with the myriads of characteristics displaying on the nose and palate, from dense pear-like fruit to skin-contact structure, I strongly sense there is more held in reserve. This has years of evolution ahead of it. Certainly, you can drink it now and have a really good time with it. This will grow more involute and sophisticated over the next… Bof!… five-to-ten years. Another shining example of the ageing potential of South African Chenin Blanc.

In absolute terms, the 2017 may satisfy me more fully, but having two wines from this fantastic vineyard and winemaker in one meal is quite the treat. If you do not like wines as good as these then you are simply incapable of understanding greatness.

Leon notes:
Deep colour. Not quite as dark as the 2017, but an attractive greeny yellow. Lovely nose, hints of fresh and candied lemon, some blossom and a hint of honey. On the palate, incredible density. One imagines a lot of dry extract in the wine. No sweetness at all. But a honey intensity that balances the acidity very well.

How long will this go on for? It is drinking well now. But one certainly gets the sense there is time in hand.

Flight three

Chenin Blanc Ava 2023, Donovan Rall

Davy notes:
I am a big fan of Donovan Rall’s red wines. His Ava Syrah is a favourite example of that varietal. I think this Ava 2023 shows he has talent with South African Chenin Blanc too.

It has old vines depth, but with only 12.5% alcohol it wears its density and power very lightly. It nithers your nose and purlieus on your palate. However, elegantly it dances, there is proper density, lovely, super-refined minerality, and a prickle of skin contact giving it, one of my favourite characteristics in white wine, a slightly savoury structure.

We are clear this is a complex, high quality wine? Good. Perhaps not with the degree of buxom lustre of the Mullineux and 1947 Vines, but it is a very fine, fine-boned wine of preconisant elegance.

The relative pricing suggests it might be a more modest wine; I do not think so. I was sufficiently impressed with this 2023 to buy a couple more bottles on my return home – the quality/price ratio is hard to beat.

As far as ageing this goes, my conversations with the man Donovan himself assure me it will. I will be keeping my remaining bottles of 2021 and my 2023s for five or so years.

I feel I made a good move buying some of this, untasted, on release.

Leon comments:
Once again, I am in violent agreement with Davy’s assessment.

Interestingly, although these are single-site wines, it seems they are named after his daughter rather than the vineyards themselves. The Syrah and Chenin vineyards are next door to each other.

My handwritten notes say “flawless, perfect, balance so good”. Not much to add, really.

I, too, have hugely enjoyed the Ava Syrah.

Chenin Blanc Hoë-Steen 2023, David and Nadia

Leon notes:
Is this the most expensive white at the table? I think so. This can be had for £59 from Lay & Wheeler. The rest of the wines were in the mid-30s to mid-40s.

Slightly spiky nose. A hint of non-integrated teenage energy. The palate is a significant step up. Really reminded me of the mind-blowing 2021 Ava we tasted earlier. This wine sparked a discussion of tasting the soil through the wine. There seems to be a real expression of terroir here. A fellow taster remarked “it’s like Raveneau, but in a good way”.

This is proper kit. Whilst fully priced against other South African Chenin Blancs, it is a veritable steal in the broader context of world-class dry white wine.

Davy comments:
This is very irritating, I totally agree with Leon once more. I only have one bottle of this left and it promises a glorious future. If I had sixty coins (x N) I would be buying more of this – this is the archetype FTA wine.

Red wines

Château Mouton-Rothschild 1979

Leon notes:
We then went on to taste a couple of reds. This has become the tradition at these wonderful lunches. They help with the cheese. They recalibrate the tongue after its acid adventures.

Some apprehension that this would be past it. Well, the peak for this wine is clearly in the past. But it is clean as a whistle. Lots of tobacco and campfire character, getting into the “old wine” zone. But one does not have to pretend to enjoy this.

Davy notes:
1979 gives ordinary vintages a good name. I am not expecting it to even be alive…

It is alive! And it is… pretty good!

It is obviously fully mature, but there are the remains of fruit, a pleasing leafy character and some length. It is clean. The structure is not dried out, either.

This is not a style of wine I claim to be any sort of expert in, nor particularly seek out to drink, but this is good and I will enjoy a glass.

Côte-Rôtie Maison Rouge 2012, Christine Vernay

Leon notes:
Davy has been talking about this wine for some time. He had been eager for me to try it. He takes the view that I tend to drink wine far too old. For maximum joy, he says, one should be drinking these wines at their peak. Well, we shall see.

My handwritten notes start with “THE NOSE!”, in block capitals. Amazingly intense and expressive. Somewhat floral, with strong violet in there. You could lose yourself in the glass just smelling this. I did, however, decide to go beyond smelling.

There is a kind of soft, spherical intensity to this. The fruit is there, along with that bacon fat character. The tannins are there but marching a quarter of a step behind the fruit. There is structure in this wine. But it is gentle, all in service of the fruit.

This is just lovely stuff. As good as it gets. I can get Davy’s point that one does not want to leave these for too long. Maximum joy to be had in the next year or two, I should think. Anyway, a pleasure and a treat and a great finish to the meal.

Davy comments:
I am glad Leon was very pleased with this but, as this was just popped and poured, I feel I have failed in my duty to provide him with a bottle showing at its peak of utter loveliness and beguiling sex-appeal.

We shall try this again, Mr Marks.

Leon comments:
Well, I am not going to turn down that kind offer, Davy. But my gosh, if it shows much better than this, it is a truly exceptional wine. Perhaps your palate was just a little tired by that stage. Or perhaps there are even greater pleasures ahead of me.

Concluding remarks

Davy remarks

This tasting truly demonstrated that South African Chenin Blanc is a world class wine fit to dine at the highest of tables. Quality was supreme, age-worthiness without question.

The tasting was also an awful lot of fun. Some tastings one can get caught up in abstracted points of terroir-expression, degree of malolactic fermentation or whatever. This tasting was about enjoying the unbounded pleasure of real quality wine in the company of attuned fellows.

Perhaps Leon and I agreed so much because we have tasted frequently together. I prefer to think it was a product of the qualities of the wines being so expressive that we could not help but notice and be stunned by them. These were excellent wines by any measure.

With that in mind, I urge anyone starting a collection of wines to age and drink when you reach the advanced years of Leon, our friends and me, to buy quality South African Chenin Blanc with enthusiasm. The producers represented here will not fail you.

My final words go to my co-author of this piece, the good Mr Marks. It was beyond hilarious tasting with you and writing this article together has turned out to be remarkably easy and an awful lot of fun. Thank you, Leon, let us do this again sometime; do you have a free lunchtime next summer?

Leon remarks

So, what did we learn? I will mostly stick to the Chenin Blancs, since they were the focus of the lunch.

Well, this was a very fun lunch. The wine was truly world class. Is South African Chenin Blanc the very best dry white wine in existence? Probably not. It paints with a narrower palate than white Burgundy.

Value is another matter. The most expensive wine at the table was a whisker under £60. What will £60 buy you in Burgundy these days? This has been discussed in these pages before, but it is worth restating. If I were in my 20s or 30s and starting out in wine, I would be going long on South Africa, and in particular Chenin Blanc and Syrah.

As to the ageing potential, I think we can confidently state that good vintages will easily last a decade. What I do not have a sense of yet is how they will develop beyond that. I will enjoy experimenting, especially with my eleven remaining bottles of the 2021 Mullineux Schist Chenin.

However, it is not just about the wines, of course. Remember the Review readers at the next table? We ended up sharing glasses with them. That is what wine does at its best. It brings strangers together over a good bottle. It marries the sensual and the analytical.

I love being able to share these wines with dear friends. It is heartening that one can drink at this level without breaking the bank.

Hopefully we will be able to continue this tradition in the summer of 2027. We can check in then to see how these rather special wines are developing.