Angus Paul Barbary Fictions Chenin Blanc 2024

Learn More About This Wine

One sight: Bottelary; one grape: Chenin Blanc. Hailing from a 1972 planted, ragged, hilltop vineyard in the Bottelary ward around 300 metres above sea level, on Mooiplaas farm. This vineyard faces northwest, but luckily cool winds from Table Bay blow up through the valleys, though the fynbos that surround this old block and through the vines themselves. This vineyard moves slowly and requires patience in harvest time to capture it at its best moment. 

Grapes are hand-picked and cooled overnight. The following morning they are put into the press and pressed as whole bunches. No sulphur, yeast, acid, enzymes or water added. Very cloudy juice was transferred to neutral oak barrels, with only the heaviest of solids left behind. Fermentation took place over 4 weeks, after which about half of the barrels completed malolactic fermentation. In Autumn, wines were sulphured for the first time. Wines were bottled in January 2025 after having spent 11 months in barrels with no racking or fining. 

The nose is rich in lemongrass, cut apple and yellow citrus. It has more of a deeper, heavier rumble than the high pitch of the Chenin’s that come from the other side of the Bottelary hill formation (those that face False Bay). The palate is crunchy like biting into an apple. Despite this, it is a round wine, with the freshness and breadth tugging each other in equal balanced directions. 

A prickly pear grows in this old vineyard, often referred to as a Barbary fig, ficus or fiction; a barbary fiction: tale formed by the mariners of the age of exploration created a mystique about the terrifying places that lay beyond the edge of maps. These tales served to ‘make sense of’ and overcome the fear and danger of these new, shrouded places, often by contorting them into the incomprehensible. 

Tim Atkin’s MW – South Africa Report 2025 – 93 points

Barbary Fictions is one of three Chenin Blancs in Angus Paul’s range, sourced from the Mooiplaas Estate in the Bottelary Hills. Fermented and aged in older barrels, it has appealing weight and texture, baking spice and honeysuckle top notes and a palate of lanolin, pear and lemon zest. The granite soils add a tangy, stony finish.