Greg Sherwood MW: Sadie’s ‘T Voetpad and the power of old vines

The Western Cape winelands have been blessed with a rich tapestry of viticultural diversity, sometimes by design, sometimes by default and sheer luck. Take the 5,159 hectares of old vines, defined as being 35 years or older, that are planted around the winelands, or indeed the 10 vineyards in the country that are over 100 years old – many, if not most of these vineyards, are only still in the ground because growers or wineries couldn’t afford to pull them out and replant them.

But thankfully, these neglected old vineyards have now turned into one of South Africa’s true trump cards, with rejuvenated and regenerated old vine vineyards offering a quality and variety of grape cultivars that international competitors simply cannot compete with.

Only just this week, I was made aware of, and invited to participate in, another new tasting project in the UK to showcase a curated selection of Certified Heritage Vineyards wines from South Africa, to be presented in innovative wine-in-tube tasting packs, allowing participants to explore a range of old vine wines that “reflect South Africa’s diverse varieties and regions.”

The Old Vine Project of South Africa is of course the leading organisation dedicated to preserving South Africa’s viticultural heritage and safeguarding its old vineyards – through training, research, and education – “with an aim to create opportunities for those who own the vines, work in the vineyards, and craft wines from their fruit.”  I certainly look forward to being involved with this exciting new tasting initiative.

But let’s be honest: when it comes to South African old-vine whites, few are as celebrated as those in the Old Vine Series from Sadie Family Wines – now known as the Distrikreeks. Among Eben Sadie’s broader range, one wine in particular continues to inspire extraordinary levels of excitement among collectors and connoisseurs worldwide: ’T Voetpad, the iconic white field blend cuvée.

There is only one problem with this wine. It is made in ridiculously small quantities, and that is when Eben is even able to make it at all. Simply looking at a cross section of vintages, such as 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 – or the drought years – I note that the yields were recorded on the winery’s website as 22 hl/ha. Fast forward to a more recent vintage like 2022 or 2024, and this drops even further to a mere 13 hl/ha. With the vineyard only a mere 1.4 hectares in size, this theoretically equates to roughly 2,426 bottles without making allowances for dead or unproductive vines, the wider historical vine spacing, as well as the inevitable wine loss during racking, ageing and bottling.

With so few opportunities to either acquire this famous wine and indeed, even fewer occasions to drink it, let alone compare and contrast multiple vintages of this wine, a group of very enthusiastic collectors in London recently set about putting on a mini-vertical of ‘T Voetpad in the name of science … and of course sheer hedonistic enjoyment. The mini-vertical included 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 (all the drought years), and a more recent 2022 vintage. The maiden vintage of ‘T Voetpad was only 2009.

While I have visited Eben’s cellar several times and walked the vineyards with him around his farm, including the delightful “new” Rotsbank Chenin Blanc old vine vineyard, I have still not managed to make the pilgrimage to the fabled ‘T Voetpad vineyard in the Swartland – Piketberg region or indeed to the hallowed Chenin Blanc grounds of the Skurfberg.

For the uniformed, the slightly obscure name refers to ‘The Footpath’ in Dutch and comes from the name of vineyard owner Dirk Brand’s wheat and rooibos tea farm, where this rustic block of old vines is tucked away. As Eben says, “this is surely the most isolated old vineyard in the country, presumably originally planted to supply the farmer and his neighbours with grapes.” Its 1.4 hectares host varieties established in the Cape since the early days of European settlement, with most of the planting carried out between 1887 and 1928, with all of the vines grow on their own roots, ungrafted.

The vineyard’s survival without irrigation is also extraordinary in this hot valley in the north of the large Swartland region, near the village of Aurora and Elands Bay on the coast. Its precise location has allowed it to survive, with an underground river flowing beneath it from the nearby mountains. Inter-planted as a field blend, the vineyard includes Semillon Blanc, Semillon Gris, Palomino, Chenin Blanc and Muscat d’ Alexandrie (South African synonyms being Groendruif, Vaalblaar, Steen and Hanepoot.)

It is thought the Muscat d’ Alexandrie was planted in around 1900, the red and white Semillon from the early 1920s, the Palomino from 1978, and the Chenin Blanc in 1991, all on their own roots including the Chenin Blanc. The vines are grown on decomposed Table Mountain Sandstone soils on a loam base and are vinified and aged for 12 months in old acacia and oak foudres, being left on their lees the entire time before being bottled unfiltered and unfined with circa 60 mg/litre of Sulphur.

With a wine like this made in such small quantities, and global demand skyrocketing, only the very oldest and most loyal mailing list members receive a full six pack of this wine, and even this may be cut to three bottles in future. Almost all other distributors, whether in South Africa or internationally, usually restrict clients to perhaps one, two or three bottles, making it even more difficult to taste this wine on more than one or two occasions in its evolution.

So, when is the best time to drink this fabled wine? Young? five years old? 10 years old? Or older perhaps? And indeed, Eben is often asked this very question, to which he answers… “often we get asked what may be the best drinking times for our wines. The answer is much more complex than a one-liner or a brief reply. First and foremost, we have to realize that everyone has a different drinking preference; some love the fruit purity and fresh fruit flavours and are happy with these primal fruit aromatics being the main drive in the young wine, albeit the tannins and texture being held by significant tension and possible astringency – or what we call VERSION 1.”

He continues “then again, I would personally much rather forgo those initial aromatics for a wine that, with time gone by, has now shed its primal fruit aromatics, baby fat, and brightness and has instead evolved into secondary flavours that did not exist in VERSION 1, and also at the potential loss of the primary aspects, has now gained much more earthy, soil, aged fruit and complex secondary aromas, and all of this with the tannins that now present themselves much rounder and smoother and the initial tension in the wine now itself more relaxed and ‘open’. We may call this VERSION 2 of the wine.”

With our small London mini-vertical, we tried to include some older vintages of the wine, but the oldest we were able to source was the 2013. By Eben’s own reckoning, for ‘T Voetpad specifically, he would evaluate these two drinking windows, or “versions”, to be: VERSION 1: 1-4 years and VERSION 2: 15 – 22 years.

The ‘T Voetpad cuvée, as a blend of Semillon Blanc, Semillon Gris, Palomino, Chenin Blanc and Muscat d’Aexandrie, are all co-planted so are picked together. On paper, it should be the wine that requires more time to reach an equilibrium in the bottle, but Eben reckons it is probably the first wine to get to a more stable point. “I guess after 140 years of living together that is what happens. This wine can age incredibly well, and the 2009 is still fresh” he concludes.

London Mini-Vertical Tasting Notes:

‘T Voetpad 2013, 13% Abv.

Stony, mineral and taut, this is delightfully fresh and vibrant, uploading the best of the 2013 styling. Huge precision and concentration, grilled lime and pithy grapefruit jelly. Crisp and cool, lovely tension, “an optimistic wine” but also a “summery wine” that’s definitely rocking at the moment. (Score: 98/100 GSMW)

‘T Voetpad 2015, 14% Abv.

Shows rich savoury aromatics, wet straw, wood spice, box wood and savoury earthy nuances. The palate is broad, creamy and glycerol, displaying vibrant lemon verbena, lemon biscuits, honeycomb and waxy lemon peel. A very solid wine. (Score: 95/100 GSMW)

‘T Voetpad 2016, 13.5% Abv.

Dense, rich, powerful wine where the vines are undoubtedly adjusting to the drought conditions. Taut, nervy aromatics with lime peel and a honeycomb complexity. Super soft fleshy palate, loose knit, the acids mellowing already, “a little flaccid” was the comment, but lovely glycerol mouthfeel and breadth overall. Just perhaps not quite the same depth and piercing intensity of the 2013. (Score: 96/100 GSMW)

‘T Voetpad 2017, 13% Abv.

Incredibly taut, spicy and intense, showing wood spice, honeycomb, and lemon honey herbal tea. Palate is incredibly mellow and fine, but shows an underlying citrus honied minerality and a focused tangy acidity. Super intensity and power. Very impressive but also mellow and harmonious in its assertiveness. Delicious. (Score: 97/100 GSMW)

‘T Voetpad 2018 13.5% Abv.

A very honied, lanolin, vinyl-tinged aromatics (the Semillon!) with lemon cordial, lime peel, sweet baking herbs, boxwood and green tea nuances. The palate is rich and tangy, glycerol, intense, mouth-watering. The acids are beautifully tangy and fresh with intense sweet lemon cordial notes and massive persistent length. A profound wine by anyone’s standards. (Score: 98/100 GSMW)

‘T Voetpad 2022, 13.34% Abv.

Another incredibly broad, deep, expressive wine with creamy aromatics of white peach and waxy lemon, wet straw, dried guava roll and dried baking herbs. The palate bursts with a lemon and lime cordial intensity, sweet tangy acids, intense salinity, focused concentration with power and depth. Wow! (Score: 97/100 GSMW)

When reading Eben’s own notes, specifically for the 2022 ‘T Voetpad, he states… “with the first smell of this 2022 Voetpad, we thought, wow, let’s not even write a note and ruin it!” Of course, I will grant you that it may seem slightly puerile to even try and assign scores and constructed tasting notes to such incredibly profound wines. But alas, that is the only way I can try and quantify and describe just how special this wine really is, not only for Sadie Family Wines, or even South Africa, but in a global fine wine context.

• Greg Sherwood was born in Pretoria, South Africa, and as the son of a career diplomat, spent his first 21 years traveling the globe with his parents. With a Business Management and Marketing degree from Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, Sherwood began his working career as a commodity trader. In 2000, he decided to make more of a long-held interest in wine taking a position at Handford Wines in South Kensington, London, working his way up to the position of Senior Wine Buyer over 22 years. Sherwood currently consults to a number of top fine wine merchants in London while always keeping one eye firmly on the South African wine industry. He qualified as the 303rd Master of Wine in 2007.