Bruce Jack's Tumbleweed Chenin: open it now or keep it?

Tumbleweed Wild Chenin Blanc is made to be drunk young, so if there is a bottle in the house, tonight is a sensible time to open it. The guidance from Bruce Jack is to drink it on release and over the following two to three years, while the green-apple snap and citrus lift are at full strength. You can judge any bottle of it you own from the label and a little knowledge of how the wine was made.

What the first two or three years give you

Young Tumbleweed tastes of crisp green apple with a thread of citrus running through it, carried by bright, refreshing acidity. Wine people call these primary flavours. They come straight from the grape and the fermentation, before age adds or takes away anything, and in a young white they are at their sharpest.

The palate is dry, with a little roundness at the finish from the time the wine spends on its lees. Lees are the spent yeast cells left behind after fermentation, and leaving the wine in contact with them until bottling adds some texture without dulling the fruit. In the early years you get that crisp acid and soft edge together, and the fresh fruit is the part that fades with time.

Why the cellar has little to add

Chenin Blanc has a reputation for ageing, and some styles of it develop over many years, so this advice can surprise people who know the grape (our guide to Chenin Blanc covers its range of styles). Tumbleweed is made with freshness as the goal from start to finish. Only free-run juice is used, meaning the juice that flows from the grapes under their own weight, separated by gravity so nothing harsh is extracted from the skins. It ferments in stainless steel, which keeps the fruit flavours clean and adds nothing from wood.

The bigger decision was blocking malolactic fermentation. This is a second, optional fermentation that turns sharp malic acid (the acid you taste in a green apple) into softer lactic acid. Bruce Jack stops it deliberately to keep the acidity zippy, which is why the wine tastes so crisp. A portion of the juice ferments with wild yeasts at a cool twelve to fifteen degrees for extra texture, but the wine is built around energy and primary fruit, and those are at their best early.

The grapes come from Swartland sites on rolling hills that face the sea, with much of the fruit hand harvested to protect its bright character. Hot, dry summers ripen the grapes and cool ocean air keeps them fresh, and a young bottle is where you will find that freshness in the glass.

How to judge the bottle in front of you

Start with the vintage year on the label. The wine's window runs from release over the following two to three years, so a bottle from a recent harvest is in its stride and one from a few harvests back is near the end. If you cannot remember when you bought it, trust the vintage over your memory of the receipt.

A bottle close to the end of that window is best opened soon, with an ordinary meal. One kept well beyond it is likely to have lost some of its green-apple crunch, and you will be drinking a flatter wine than the one that left the winery.

If you have bought several bottles, drink them through the next year or two at weeknight suppers and save nothing for a distant occasion. Keep the unopened ones lying down somewhere cool and dark, away from radiators and sunny windowsills, because warmth moves a white wine along faster than anything else in a British home.

Opening it tonight

Chill it to eight to ten degrees, cold enough to keep the acidity crisp and the citrus lifted. If it has sat in the fridge for a whole day, give it a few minutes on the table before pouring so the fruit has a chance to show.

Grilled sardines with lemon and parsley suit the green-apple acidity, which cuts through the oil in the fish. Chilled prawns with garlic aioli pair well for the same reason, the wine's freshness clearing the richness of the aioli between mouthfuls. On a night when nobody wants to cook, classic fish and chips from the chippy is a sound match, since the dry finish keeps each mouthful of batter from feeling heavy.

The vintage on the label settles the question, and any bottle within two to three years of release belongs on the table this week. Chill Bruce Jack's Tumbleweed Wild Chenin Blanc to eight to ten degrees and pour the first glass while the sardines are still hissing from the grill.