Sadie Family : Kokerboom Sémillon 2024

Characteristics and tasting tips for Kokerboom Sémillon 2024 by Sadie Family

Tasting

Appearance
The wine shows a straw-yellow colour with golden highlights and beautiful brilliance. Its pronounced viscosity in the glass reflects its richness, while subtle greenish hues hint at its youth.

Nose
Highly complex, the bouquet unveils characteristic aromas of beeswax and lanolin, intertwined with notes of tropical fruit such as passion fruit, as well as citrus. With aeration, delicate spicy and ginger touches enrich this aromatic palette.

Palate
The attack is broad and reveals a voluminous, substantial texture. This richness is perfectly balanced by a lively, refreshing acidity. The structure is underpinned by exceptionally fine tannins that carry the experience through to a persistent finish, marked by an elegant salinity and echoes of stone fruit.

Food and wine pairing

The estate recommends serving this wine with grilled salmon and herb butter. More broadly, its structure and freshness will pair wonderfully with roasted white fish, pan-seared scallops or shellfish. It will also elevate white meats in a creamy sauce, such as guinea fowl with mushrooms, as well as aged hard cheeses such as an old Gouda or a Comté.

Serving and cellaring

To appreciate the full complexity of this wine, we recommend serving it at a temperature between 11 and 13°C. Decanting for about one hour is advised in its youth to allow it to open up fully. With great ageing potential, this wine will develop favourably in the cellar and can be enjoyed until around 2039.

A remarkably fine white wine from Western Cape, South Africa

The estate

Officially founded in 1999 by Eben Sadie, its current owner, Sadie Family has established itself as an essential benchmark of the Western Cape in South Africa. Located in the Swartland, the estate farms 51 hectares of vines, 24 of which it owns. Eben Sadie carries out pioneering work there to preserve old vines, which are grown without irrigation. The estate stands out for its strict environmental approach, formalised through sustainability charters, and a minimalist winemaking philosophy that aims to express the authenticity of each terroir with great precision.

The vineyard

The grapes come from old vines planted in the 1930s on the slopes of the Citrusdal Mountain, within the Olifants River area. This high-altitude terroir of Western Cape is characterised by decomposed Table Mountain sandstone soils, rich in iron and reddish-brown in colour, offering excellent drainage. The vineyard is trained as bush vines and dry-farmed, without any irrigation or chemical inputs. These extreme conditions naturally limit yields, ensuring exceptional concentration in the berries.

The vintage

Following a previous year marked by a significant water deficit, the growing season benefited from climatic conditions that allowed optimal ripeness to be reached while preserving great freshness. The region's strong sun exposure, balanced by cool nights due to the altitude, favoured a harmonious development of the berries, yielding a healthy harvest with beautiful phenolic concentration.

Winemaking and ageing

After hand harvesting and careful transport, the bunches are chilled to 4°C. Whole-bunch pressing takes place over three hours for a gentle extraction. The juice then settles for around twelve hours before being transferred to old wooden foudres. Fermentation takes place there naturally, followed by twelve months of ageing on the lees, without any racking. The wine is finally bottled directly from its lees, without fining or filtration.

Grape varieties

80% Sémillon Blanc
20% Sémillon Gris