LUDDITE SABOTEUR WHITE BLEND 2023

LUDDITE SABOTEUR WHITE BLEND, natural wine from Bot River and Elgin.  The 2022 blend is 71% Chenin Blanc, 15% Viognier and 14% Sauvignon Blanc Fumé.  A gorgeous textural white from Luddite, the Chenin provides much of the flavour with added complexity from the other varietals.  There is a little skin contact on the Chenin and Viognier to give some tannin, texture and structure to the wine. Both these varietals spent 10 days on skins with morning and evening punch-downs.  They are then pressed, taking as much lees and sediment to the barrel to complete the fermentation.  There is also a small portion of stainless steel tank fermentation Chenin Blanc for extra primary fruit. The Sauvignon Blanc is pressed directly into the barrel to ferment (Fumé). All the components spent 7 months in old French Oak barrels with regular batonnage.  Simply delicious and natural Cape white wine with a salty, salinity underneath a rich textural wine.

Niels Verburg founded Luddite wines in 1999 with the express intention of making world class Shiraz.

The grapes for this wine have been previously bought in from un-irrigated vineyards in the warmish regions of Malmesbury and Bottelary in Stellenbosch. Niels has developed his production and his own vineyards in Bot River just South East of Elgin where he now grows Shiraz for the Luddite wine.

Grapes for Shiraz are cooled overnight in a cold store, crushed and de-stalked the next day into open cement fermentation tanks. Allowed to cold macerate for three days the must ferments with natural yeast and then aged in barrels. His wines undergo light filtration to remove sediment but preserve character.

The Chenin is sourced from his own vines at Bot River and has what Niels believes is becoming its own unique style which represents Bot River Chenin. Niels owns other vines and buys fruit from other growers in SA to make his Saboteur range but it is in Bot River where he is aiming for the stars and is starting to produce wine of amazing depth and complexity with drinkability in spades.

It was a pleasure to meet Niels, a huge man with a very big smile and warmth. Wines often reflect the personality of the producer, and Luddite does that, the wines are big, powerful but also intelligent, very friendly and in no way prosaic, just like their creator.