Alvi's Drift Signature Viognier
£13.49
£17.99 per litre · incl. 20% VAT
Only 3 bottles left
Viognier at its most charming: blossom, ripe apricot and a whisper of spice, all wrapped around a textured, lightly creamy palate. Unwooded, so the fruit does the talking. A brilliant midweek white that punches well above its price, and the kind of bottle that turns a Thai takeaway into something properly special.
Not for sale to persons under 18. Adult signature required on delivery.
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Our Verdict
We list a lot of South African whites, and Viognier under £15 is a genuinely tough category to get right, too often it's either flat and tropical or clumsily oaked. This one nails the balance. The fruit is generous but the texture is precise, and that long lees ageing gives it a creaminess that makes it feel pricier than it is. We'd pour it for anyone who usually reaches for an Alsace Pinot Gris or a richer Chardonnay and wants to try something different. A reliably popular midweek white in our range, and one of the smartest sub-£15 buys we ship.
Tasting Notes
Pour this and the glass fills with orchard blossom, ripe apricot and a faint white-pepper lift, classic Viognier signals that promise generosity without heaviness. The palate delivers on it: stone fruit at the centre, peach skin and yellow nectarine, with a soft, lees-stirred creaminess underneath. Acidity keeps everything moving, so the wine feels fresh rather than blowsy. The finish lingers on dried apricot and a whisper of ginger spice, dry and gently warming.
Apricot & Peach
Sun-ripened stone fruit sits at the heart of the wine, fleshy apricot and yellow peach, generous but never cloying.
Orchard Blossom
A lifted floral note of honeysuckle and orange blossom rises from the glass, giving the wine its unmistakable Viognier perfume.
Soft Spice
A subtle dusting of white pepper and warm ginger threads through the finish, adding interest and lift to the ripe fruit.
About This Wine
If Chardonnay feels familiar and Sauvignon Blanc feels a touch sharp, this is the white you've been waiting for. Viognier is the Rhône's perfumed star, and South Africa's Breede River Valley has quietly become one of the best places outside France to grow it, warm sunshine for ripeness, cool river-fed nights for poise. Alvi's Drift sits right in the middle of that sweet spot.
Expect a glassful of orchard blossom and ripe stone fruit on the nose, think apricot, white peach, a hint of honeysuckle, with a gentle spice lift behind. The palate is rounder than you might expect from an unwooded white: clarified juice, a cold ferment and several months on lees give it a soft, almost creamy weight that carries the fruit beautifully without ever feeling heavy.
This is a food wine dressed up as an easy drinker. Pour it with Thai green curry, lemongrass chicken or a prawn stir-fry and watch the spice and fruit play off each other. Equally good with a quiche straight from the oven, roast chicken with tarragon, or a wedge of soft, washed-rind cheese.
The van der Merwe family have been farming this stretch of the Breede River for nearly a century, and their Signature range is built around one idea: serious winemaking at everyday prices. Delivered to your door anywhere in the UK, this is the kind of bottle you'll happily keep on rotation, and a thoughtful, unexpected gift for anyone bored of the usual whites.
Food Pairing
Viognier loves aromatic, slightly spicy food, and this one is built for it. Think Thai green chicken curry, a coconut prawn laksa, or a Sunday roast chicken with lemon and thyme. It's also surprisingly handy with a creamy mushroom tart or a wedge of quiche straight from the oven. Avoid anything too tannic-tomato-heavy, let the fruit and florals do the work.
- —Thai green chicken curry with jasmine rice
- —Roast chicken with lemon, garlic and thyme
- —Coconut and lemongrass prawn laksa
- —Quiche Lorraine with a green salad
- —Pan-fried sea bass with apricot and almond couscous
How to Serve
Temperature
Properly chilled but not icy, around 10°C. Twenty minutes in the fridge from cold is plenty.
Decanting
No decanting needed. If anything, pour and let the first glass warm slightly in the bowl, Viognier's aromatics close up when over-chilled, and a few degrees of warmth releases all that blossom and apricot.
Glass
A medium-sized white wine glass with a slightly rounded bowl helps capture and concentrate the floral nose.
Cellaring
Store somewhere cool, dark and stable if you're holding it for a year or two. This isn't a long-haul cellar wine, enjoy it young.
Ageing & Cellaring
Drink now while the floral aromatics and fresh stone fruit are at their most expressive. It'll hold happily for two to three years from release, gradually trading some of that primary perfume for a softer, slightly honeyed character, but Viognier is rarely improved by long cellaring.
The Land
The farm sits on a patchwork of soils, decomposed granite, red Karoo earth, shale, limestone, black slate, sandy loam and dorbank, each block matched to the grape that suits it best. The Breede River moderates the heat and irrigates the vines, while cool nights protect Viognier's delicate florals and natural acidity.
The Winemaking
This is Viognier kept clean and bright, no oak, no distractions, just the grape doing its thing. Only the premium free-run juice goes into the tank, the gentlest fraction that comes off the press before any pressure is applied. A cool, slow fermentation locks in those heady aromatics of blossom and apricot that Viognier loses so easily to heat. Several months on the fine lees afterwards builds the soft, almost creamy weight on the mid-palate before fining and stabilisation lock everything in.
The Western Cape Region
Le Domaine draws its fruit from vineyards scattered across the Western Cape, from coastal sites cooled by Atlantic breezes to warmer inland slopes, all planted between 50 and 300 metres above sea level. This broad sourcing is deliberate. By blending components from different microclimates, the cellar builds a consistent house style that balances the crisp acidity of cooler sites with the ripe generosity of warmer ones. It's the Western Cape's extraordinary diversity captured in a single glass.