2024 Sadie Family Citrusdal Mountain Skurfberg

97 pts
Sadie Family Wines |Citrusdal Mountain |Chenin Blanc
A linear, tension-filled Chenin Blanc from ungrafted 90-year-old vines in the arid Citrusdal mountains.

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Sale price$179.00
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Description

This is Chenin Blanc pushed to its limit. Sourced from the Citrusdal Mountain District way up north, the Skurfberg (meaning 'rugged mountain') is a harsh, arid spot where the vines really have to fight. These ungrafted bush vines were planted back in the 1940s and 50s on red sandstone slopes and were famously tended by the late, legendary grower Basie van Lill. 

It is a site that produces incredibly distinct wine. Eben Sadie notes that despite the heat, the wine always holds onto enormous freshness. The 2024 release is particularly linear and strict. It was the first of the Chenins to be picked, resulting in a wine that feels razor-sharp. 

In the glass, it is serious stuff. You get savoury notes of beeswax, sea spray and white linen alongside the fruit. It has a distinct salty, sapid character that keeps you coming back for another sip. There is a tension here that feels electric, with a texture that is earthy and concentrated rather than just fruity. It is a wine that doesn't muck about - it's precise, stern and totally compelling.

97 points
"Rich, dense, layered and complex, it's a Chenin Blanc with mouth-watering acidity, flavours of lemon zest and green apple and wafts of wildflowers and ocean breezes."
- Tim Atkin MW (South Africa Report 2025)

Tim Atkin MW

Tim Atkin MW

South Africa Special Report 2025 97 Points

More north than Magnetic North," says Eben Saide, teasing his friend Chris Alheit, whose equally famous wine comes from an adjacent parcel on similarly red, mineral-rich sandstone soils. Rich, dense, layered and complex, it's a Chenin Blanc with mouth-watering acidity, flavours of lemon zest and green apple and wafts of wildflowers and ocean breezes. 2026-26.

Citrusdal Mountain. This extraordinary 100% Chenin Blanc hails from one of South Africa’s northernmost wine regions, the arid Citrusdal Mountain District, on the west bank of the Olifants River. Specifically, the fruit comes from the late Basie van Lill’s 90-year-old ungrafted bush vines at 640 metres on the decomposed, red sandstone slopes of the Skurfberg (which means ‘rigid mountain’). Planted between 1940 and 1955, these immaculately farmed vines have never been treated with herbicides or chemical fertilisers. “It is a truly great site for Chenin, and it is most unusual that such a warm and dry area still produces wines with this enormous texture and freshness,” says Eben. The result is an earthy, tension-fuelled wine that can easily stand up to the greatest Chenins of the Loire—a wine of jaw-dropping texture, mineral energy and complexity. Eben notes that the 2024 “is a more linear version of the vineyard expression, and the wine should fill out with time in the bottle.”

Price Bracket $101 and Above
Type White
Body Full Bodied
Variety Chenin Blanc
Country South Africa
Region Citrusdal Mountain
Feature High Score
Iconic
Cult
Reviewed By Tim Atkin MW
Critic Score 96
Size 750ml
Vintage 2024
Closure Cork

Sadie Family Wines

One of the tearaway producers of the revitalised Swartland wine scene, Sadie Family Wines has had an astronomical rise to fame on the international stage.

Owner and winemaker, Eben Sadie, first found acclaim under the banner of Terroir Al Limit where he was a co-founder alongside Dominik Huber. In the same way that Terroir Al Limit helped redefine what wine could taste like from Priorat in Spain, Sadie handles his family wines and vines with that same ruthless attention to detail.

These wines perfectly articulate a sense of place. Sadie's transparency in winemaking and obsessive farming practices reveal intense, tightly-wound wines with distinct personality. These are now some of South Africa's most keenly sought-after artisan wines. Worldwide allocations are minuscule and hotly contested. As little as a handful of bottles make it to Australia each year. Secure these rare birds while you can.

Eben Sadie in the vineyard Sadie Family Wines

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