Lledoner Pelut is Grenache with a furry secret. It is a downy-leaved variant of Grenache Noir, known in Spain as Garnacha Peluda and nicknamed Hairy Grenache, and the hair is on the underside of the leaf, not anywhere in your glass.

 

South African growers have been taking an interest since Kloovenburg planted the country’s first clean material in the Swartland in 2018, after viticulturist Rosa Kruger came across the grape in Europe and saw promise in the way it ripens at lower sugar levels and holds on to its natural acidity. Those are useful talents in a warm, dry country. The plantings are still tiny, but they are spreading, and producers are now bottling the grape on its own and in blends.

 

The Haarwegskloof Lledoner Pelut 2024 is one of the newest. It comes from very young vines, and I found it brilliantly concentrated for a vineyard of that age. The video will ask how such a young planting delivers such a serious glass, and whether this grape deserves more rows in the Cape.

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My tasting notes for this wine will be added here when the video goes live.

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