2012 Tokara, Director's Reserve White, Stellenbosch, South Africa

Tokara

Tokara winery, part of the Walker Bay wine region, on the R310 outside Stellenbosch, is nestled among vineyards and olive groves on the crest of the Helshoogte Pass with sweeping views across False Bay and all the way to Table Mountain.

The Tokara farm was purchased in 1994 by GT Ferreira for residential purposes, but it wasn’t long before the great potential for planting vineyards was recognised and explored. Classic varietals were planted on the 400m above sea-level slopes. Under the stewardship of head winemaker, Miles Mossop, Tokara have become one of the leading estates for Bordeaux Blends in the Cape.

Walker Bay

Walker Bay is a coastal wine district, located to the south-east of Capetown, near the town of Hermanus (of whale-watching fame).

Walker Bay has built its reputation on Pinot Noir, and best exemplified by the wines from the Bouchard-Finlayson & Hamilton-Russell estates.

Walker Bay has a cool, maritime climate.  However vineyard virus and small scale production have prevented thsi wine region from competing effectively against the Pinot Noirs from New Zealand. 

Sauvignon Blanc

An important white grape in Bordeaux and the Loire Valley that has now found fame in New Zealand and now Chile. It thrives on the gravelly soils of Bordeaux and is blended with Sémillon to produce fresh, dry, crisp  Bordeaux Blancs, as well as more prestigious Cru Classé White Graves.

It is also blended with Sémillon, though in lower proportions, to produce the great sweet wines of Sauternes. It performs well in the Loire Valley and particularly on the well-drained chalky soils found in Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé, where it produces bone dry, highly aromatic, racy wines, with grassy and sometimes smoky, gunflint-like nuances.

In New Zealand, Cloudy Bay in the 1980s began producing stunning Sauvignon Blanc wines with extraordinarily intense nettly, gooseberry, and asparagus fruit, that set Marlborough firmly on the world wine map. Today many producers are rivalling Cloudy Bay in terms of quality and Sauvignon Blanc is now New Zealand`s trademark grape.

It is now grown very successfully in Chile producing wines that are almost halfway between the Loire and New Zealand in terms of fruit character. After several false starts, many South African producers are now producing very good quality, rounded fruit-driven Sauvignon Blancs.