This comes from a 1978 parcel in Stellenbosch and speaks eloquently of its granite soils. Spicy, salty and pithy, it has a nip of skin tannin, remarkable length and precision and flavours of quince and lemon zest.

Full bottle 1,391 g. 43-year-old Chenin bush vines (planted 1980) grown in the dry-farmed Kweperfontein vineyard on Watervale farm in Jakkalsfontein (Paardeberg, Swartland). Hand-picked, spontaneous fermentation, whole-bunch pressed into old oak barrels and a concrete egg. 12 months on lees. Unfined, unfiltered. RS 3.7 g/l, pH 3.22, TA 6.4 g/l, total sulphur 80 mg/l. Honey and fresh apples on the nose and then a rollercoaster thrill of acidity and white-knuckle tension. Green apricots, salted lemon, skin-prickling precision. It had the power and presence to go with a very special ex-dairy cow ribeye steak. (TC)