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Simonsig tops unwooded category in WINE’s Chenin Blanc Challenge 

Simonsig Chenin Blanc added another feather to its winning cap by taking top honours as the Best Unwooded wine in the 2010 Wine Magazine Guala Closures Chenin Blanc Challenge. The winning 2007 Simonsig Chenin Blanc, a former Platter’s ‘Superquaffer of the Year’, scored 3½ stars at this year’s challenge.

 In addition to winning Best Unwooded Chenin Blanc, the 2009 Simonsig Chenin Blanc scored 3 stars at this year’s contest, endorsing Simonsig’s legacy of quality with each new vintage produced.

Simonsig also excelled in the wooded category with the Chenin Avec Chêne 2008 being ranked joint 2nd overall with 4½ stars and the Simonsig Woolworths Limited Release 2008 scoring 4 stars.

Last year this wooded 2008 Chenin Blanc limited release bottled under the Woolworths label, won Simonsig the coveted Old Mutual Wine Show Trophy as ‘Best Chenin Blanc’ and ‘Best White Wine Overall’.

 “We pride ourselves in producing a Chenin blanc that over delivers on quality. Chenin blanc was the first wine released by my later father, and after 40 years, remains our biggest selling wine,” says Simonsig cellarmaster Johan Malan.

 Given the success of this wine, it is rather ironic that Johan once considered giving up on an unwooded version as it did not make business sense to produce an accessible, easy-drinking wine

from expensive Stellenbosch vineyards. Instead, Johan embarked on a style change in the mid-1990’s, transforming its lighter profile to a fuller, richer wine with greater ageing potential.

The Simonsig Chenin Blanc has an appealing fruity yet drier taste, which makes it a versatile wine from a quaffing and food pairing point of view.

 In 2005 Simonsig took a more serious approach to South Africa’s most widely planted variety with the introduction of the full-bodied wooded Chenin Avec Chêne 2004 (Chenin with oak), offering greater depth and complexity to its impressive repertoire of superbly balanced Chenins.

 More about Simonsig Chenin Blanc 2007                             

 It is an eminently enjoyable wine which radiates a bright golden straw hue with sweet fruit aromas of sun-ripened Golden Delicious apples and tangy pear dominant on the nose.

A tropical fruit salad of melons, guavas and pineapples fills the palate whilst a hint of wild honey evokes a silky richness on the aftertaste. 

 Simonsig Chenin Blanc 2007 is quintessentially the chosen accompaniment for a hot summer’s day and complements seafood as well as traditional curry and spicy

Thai cuisine exceptionally well. 

 The wine retails from R32 per bottle and is available directly from the cellar.

 For more information or direct cellar orders contact Simonsig Estate at

Tel: (021) 888 4915 or visit www.simonsig.co.za.