Alheit Vineyards Nautical Dawn 2023

South of Stellenbosch and close to the famous False Bay lies a small granite hill called Sinai. From up there, just 4 km away, you can see the waves breaking against the rocks of the coast. The hillside is planted from top to bottom with Chenin Blanc. The instinctive Chris Alheit brings us the "Nautical Dawn" cuvée, from a plot planted in 1978 on the upper part of the slope. The grapes were harvested and sorted by hand. Fermentation with native yeasts takes place in an old 2,000-litre foudre as well as in a few old casks of various sizes. The wine then rests on the lees for around 12 months in the same vessels. It is then transferred to stainless-steel tank with its fine lees, unfiltered, for a further 6 months before bottling. No chemical inputs were added. On the palate, this wine has great energy and a strong personality. The aromatic palette is highly complex, with notes of guava, ripe apricot, yellow peach, nectarine, quince, Williams pear, baked apple, orange peel, grapefruit, lime and dried herbs. The fine, incisive acidity is wrapped in lovely substance and leads to a long, saline finish. A little gem, with only 3,500 bottles produced!


"Nautical dawn is the phase of dawn that falls between astronomical dawn and civil dawn. It is a mysterious moment of the day – dark enough to see the stars for navigation, light enough to hoist a sail."

The first vines were planted in South Africa by Dutch settlers in the 1650s, although wine production did not really begin to take off until the arrival of French Protestants, in the 1680s, with their skills and their knowledge of viticulture. Stellenbosch is also a historic wine region, with the first vineyards being planted there in the 1690s.



Today South Africa is one of the most important wine producing countries in the southern hemisphere. With over 300 years of winemaking history, it is often described as a bridge between the Old and New Worlds. The majority of wines are produced using New World winemaking techniques, but they often have more in common stylistically with their Old World counterparts. Since the end of apartheid, South African wine has received international attention and acclaim for its wide variety of styles.



South Africa's wine industry is spread across the lush and rugged landscape of the Western Cape. Here, the abundance of mountains, valleys and plateaus allows winemakers to produce a wide variety of styles. Vineyards can also be found in the Orange River region of the Northern Cape, where the flat, arid landscape is dominated by the Kalahari Desert. Most of South Africa's wine regions have a Mediterranean climate, strongly influenced by the meeting of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.



The country's signature grape variety is Pinotage, an indigenous cross of Pinot Noir and Cinsaut that is rarely found in quantity in other wine-producing countries. Shiraz (Syrah) is also widely planted, as are Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot (often combined in a Bordeaux blend). South African Chardonnay, Chenin and Sauvignon Blanc have become popular internationally in recent years.