Duncan Savage is widely acknowledged as Mr Sauvignon Blanc in South Africa. Before he established his own urban winery project, he garnered all manner of praise and awards during his time as head winemaker at Cape Point Vineyards. Nowadays, his project is based in the cool, hip Salt River area of Cape Town – a neighbourhood that gives its name to this particular cuvee.
In 2019, when searching for new vineyard sites, Duncan happened to stumble upon a 32 year old block of bush vine Sauvignon Blanc in Stellenbosch. The elevation, wind and vine age all pointed in the right direction and after a bit of experimentation, the Salt River Sauvignon Blanc label was born.
Early in his career, Duncan trained under the great Didier Dageneau – renowned across the globe as the godfather of Pouilly-Fume. It is unsurprising therefore that Duncan’s wines possess the same ethereal quality and silky, saline finish that became the DNA of Didier’s wines.
Sauvignon Blanc ‘Salt River’ 2021
The 2021 Salt River combines fruit from the aforementioned bushvine vineyard in Stellenbosch along with grapes from another coastal site in Walker Bay. Fermented in a combination of stainless steel tanks, concrete eggs and old barrels, the wine spent four months in these vessels before being bottled, followed by a further two months in bottle prior to release. Only 500 cases of this wine were produced.