Crazy? Or crazy-good?
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Another bottling from the South African National Winetasting Champion Chris Groenewald, of Pounding Grape Wines. Pounding Grape is both an import agency that sources a range of reds and whites from the Loire, but also includes some Italian wines. Pounding Grapes is also a distributor of some small batch South African wines, including McFarlane Wines in the Polkadraai, Arcangeli in Botrivier, Koueberg, and Mount Abora.

When it comes to his own range of wines, Chris leans hard into the fringe, producing two exceedingly unusual wines; a partial skin-contact white blend that involves parcels of riesling, gewurztraminer, and pinot gris, as well as this rather fantastical skin-contact Sauvignon Blanc from the sandy soils of the Polkadraai.
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👃🏼 The nose is an absolute monster of lemongrass, sweet pepperdews, a hint of asparagus, bell pepper, fynbos and cape gooseberries.
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👄 If you thought the nose was a bit much, the palate is ready to double down on. There is plenty of sweet-&-savoury bell pepper elements, with some tart apricot fruit, some citrus, and bitter grapefruit finish.
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🔬Fruit from the Carinus-owned Farm in the Polkadraai. 28-yr-old vines, which is old for Sauvignon. No herbicides or pesticides for the last decade. Very poor beach-sand like decomposed soils. Fermented in open top fermenters. 5 days on the skins, with one punchdown per day. Wine goes through malolactic conversion as well. Matured in Zeppelin eggs for nine months before bottling. No sulphur added until just before bottling. 12% alc.|
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💰 R165