Tasting Notes: 

This 2020 is somehow both steely and lean, yet mouth coating and rich. There are notes of quince, yellow kiwi, apple tart, butter cookies, orange peel and fennel with floral undertones. The finish is long and racy with a mouth-coating lees-y texture. 

Genevieve Winery: 

This winery was started and is headed by Melissa Genevieve Nelson. After a career shift from her job as a pilot she started out by working in a tasting room but learned fast and soon wanted to get into winemaking. She was particularly interested in sparkling wine and was able to get an internship with Ross Gower of Klein Constantia - the oldest wine estate in South Africa. Melissa launched her own brand, Genevieve, in 2008 producing only Cap Classique wines. 

Today Melissa and her partner Leon - a viticulturist himself live in Bot River and are in the process of building out their own vineyards and tending them with the philosophy of being wardens to the land for the following generations. They grow Shiraz (for their rosés) and chardonnay and farm everything with regenerative farming and integrative pest management techniques. They are not quite ready to produce all of their wines from their own fruit but they are building up to it. 

Cap Classique Wines: 

Cap Classique is the South African term for traditional method sparkling wines. AKA a wine that is made in the same method as Champagne where the grapes are picked early, a still base wine is made. Then that base wine is bottled, it’s topped with a mixture of yeast and sugar and then the bottles are sealed. This yeast sugar mixture that it is topped with kicks off a second fermentation, because that’s what fermentation is, yeast consuming sugar and as a by-product producing alcohol and carbon dioxide. But because this is happening in a sealed bottle the carbon dioxide doesn’t have anywhere to escape or blow off so instead it becomes incorporated into the wine and that is what creates the bubbles. 

Bot River Wines: 

Bot River, just west of Hermanus, is also known in Afrikaans as ‘Oil Spot’ because rain runs directly off the alluvial, well-draining soils to the river and out to sea. Its landscape is known for rolling hills, vineyards, and fynbos-covered mountains.

The region’s cool climate is influenced by its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and the Bot River Lagoon, which gently curves between the vineyards creating an idyllic backdrop from the beautiful vineyards and Dutch Cape architecture. The region has cool maritime influences, shale and clay soils, and diverse microclimates, making it ideal for premium winemaking. 

The area is best known for Chenin Blanc, Syrah, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay, with many producers also crafting excellent Méthode Cap Classique (MCC) sparkling wines.

Food & Wine Pairing: 

This would be a great wine for something like a creamy pasta dish it’s got enough acid and dryness to cut through some of the richness of a dish like that but also those rich chardonnay flavors coming through that match really well with anything creamy. 

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