The Caskaway

Catherine Marshall, Chenin Blanc fermented in Clay, South Africa 2020 at a glance

I have chosen one of my favourite producers, and this way I am pretty sure the wine is going to be well made and interesting and hopefully really enjoyable. Catherine Marshall is an extra-ordinary winemaker first produced wine in the Western Cape of South Africa in 1997. She now produces a variety of wines from a number of sites across Elgin and I am really enjoying trying out her wines like the Pinot Noir on Clay Soils she produces.

Catherine Marshall, Chenin Blanc fermented in Clay, South Africa 2020

South Africa is now the major producer of Chenin Blanc with over fifty per cent of the planted vineyards worldwide. Indeed, Chenin Blanc is the powerhouse of South African wine. However, this is not a new trend over four thousand hectares are officially classified as over thirty-five years old. These vines are capable of producing delicious, complex wines with the potential to age. Many of the best South African producers are now using these vines to create beautiful wines.

Catherine Marshall has worked in vineyards in America, Australia, and France. Her first South African wine was a simple three barrels of Shiraz, crushed by foot. From the first commercial production in 1997 she now produces a range of wines from her Elgin base in the Western Cape. After pressing the grape juice is fermented in hand produced traditional clay amphorae.

This produces a fresh wine with hints of minerality like a traditional French Chablis. Some of this wine is then transferred to French oak barrels for a maturation period of nine months during which there is a partial malolactic fermentation. This is a wine making technique that changes one acid into another, making the wine taste smoother and can add a creamy quality. The process rounds out some of the crisp green apple notes adding notes of pear and ripe stone fruits. The two wines are then blended and filtered before being bottled.

My first impression was of aromas of pear, pineapple. On tasting there was both of these flavours with extra notes of juicy tangerines or clementines, and hints of ripe peaches and honey, all balanced with the refreshing acidity you would expect of Chenin Blanc. More experienced palates than mine describe this wines minerality, this is a difficult topic and hard to explain. The best I can come up with is flinty or a pleasing smell like wet gravel after fresh rainfall. This wine would be the perfect partner to mussels or other seafood or try with something with a kick of chilli.