The former owner of Ch. Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, May de Lencquesaing, bought the Glenelly estate on the lower slopes of the Simonsberg – then mostly planted to fruit trees – in 2003, and started planting vines on virgin land (smartly avoiding the issue of virus by working only with clean vine material from the beginning). Initially sourcing from a number of different growers, by 2009 all the Glenelly wines came from her own vineyards which are now under organic conversion. From the get-go everything has been done with a Bordelais no-expense-spared approach, with a state-of-the-art, gravity-fed cellar built from scratch. Up until last year the winemaker was the brilliant Luke O’Cuinnegain (previously of Rustenberg, Ch. Angélus, and Ch. De Fieuzal), with Dirk van Zyl having now taken the reins. Lady May is one of our favourite Stellenbosch Bordeaux blends and the 2017 is an absolute beauty. It was a real highlight during a recent blind tasting Bordeaux and Stellenbosch and seems ludicrously undervalued. Just coming into its drinking window now (August 2023).
