Roodekrantz 1983 Chenin Blanc

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1983 Chenin Blanc 
Roodekrantz 
2022
Swartland 

Ok, I’ll admit it, this empty bottle has been sitting on my desk for the past six months. I’d meant it as an urgent reminder, but like all things collected on my desk, it melted into a complex ecosystem of empty Christmas biscuit tin (ca. 2022), a pile of receipts (November’s invoices) and empty coffee cups (last week’s). And then it was the day before Christmas; I’d spent two days imprinting myself on the couch ploughing through Wellness by Nathan Hill while listening to records and had decided that pants were superfluous to general living. It was as good a time as any. The roommates were gathered and a second bottle was cracked. 

Every social group has one. The friend who might as well be the atmospheric smoke machine in the corner. They merge the cliques, tell the best jokes, get the dance floor going, have the perfect playlist queued as stand-in DJ, and somehow manage to convince everyone to go for a sunrise swim. Naked. In short, they are all that I aspire to be, but only manage for approximately 45 minutes every 9 months or so — they are THE VIBE. The 1983 Chenin Blanc is that vibe. 

Brimming with yellow cling peaches, pears and a spekboom greenness, the 1983 is like falling into a freshly laundered down duvet — all the comfort, zero responsibilities. Oozing sunshine with hints of grapefruit and naartjie, this wine is a people pleaser without the faff, but take a moment from the party to sit with it on the couch and it’ll whisper some secret depths that feel like they were meant just for you.

Pair with: The kind of wine you slosh into people’s glasses whilst on the garden’s makeshift dance floor with a rollie hanging out the corner of your mouth, sunglasses slipping down your nose. Then take it your boyfriend’s mother’s house afterwards.