'Off the Charts' Chenin Blanc
£14.99
£19.99 per litre · incl. 20% VAT
In Stock — 13 bottles available
The Wine Merchant Top 100 2025The Wine Merchant 2025 Highly CommendedSommelier Wine Awards BronzeInternational Wine Challenge Commended
Here's the Swartland Chenin to convert anyone who thinks white wine plays it safe. Bruce Jack pulls fruit from old bush vines and ancient sandstone soils for something layered and alive: lush tropical fruit, citrus lift, a clean refreshing finish. Brilliant value at under fifteen pounds, and an easy crowd-pleaser. Delivered across the UK.
Our Verdict
We taste a lot of Swartland Chenin, and this is one that keeps earning its place on the list. What sells us is the balance: there's real old-bush-vine concentration here, but Bruce Jack has kept it fresh and drinkable rather than showy, which is harder to pull off than it sounds. It has picked up The Wine Merchant Top 100 and a Sommelier Wine Awards Bronze, and frankly at this price that's no surprise. Perfect for anyone who wants serious South African white without the serious price tag, whether that's a weeknight roast chicken or a gift that overdelivers. A reliable favourite we happily pour ourselves.
Tasting Notes
There's a generous wave of tropical fruit here: ripe pineapple, mango and a touch of yellow peach, the kind of richness that fills the mouth without ever feeling heavy. Underneath, white blossom and a clean lemon-lime brightness keep everything lifted and fresh. A few months on the fine lees adds a quiet, creamy weight across the middle, then the wine snaps back into a crisp, mineral finish that genuinely makes you reach for the next sip.
Lush Tropical Fruit
Ripe pineapple, mango and peach give this Chenin its generous, mouthfilling core without tipping into sweetness or heaviness.
Vibrant Citrus Lift
Bright lemon and lime run right through the palate, keeping the rich fruit fresh, focused and endlessly drinkable.
White Blossom
Delicate floral hints on the nose add perfume and finesse, a graceful counterpoint to the wine's riper fruit notes.
About This Wine
If you've ever been told Chenin Blanc is just South Africa's everyday white, this is the bottle that quietly proves otherwise. It comes from the Swartland, the wild, sun-baked stretch of the Cape where the country's most exciting winemakers go to do their best work, and Bruce Jack has built it around exactly what makes the region special.
In the glass it's generous but precise. Think ripe pineapple and yellow peach, a twist of lemon and lime keeping everything fresh, and a soft floral note underneath. The finish is crisp and mouthwatering rather than heavy, the kind of wine that makes you reach for a second glass before you've quite finished the first.
The detail behind it is what lifts it above the pack. A third of the fruit comes from old, low-yielding bush vines rooted in ancient sandstone and shale, picked by hand and vinified block by block. Most is fermented in stainless steel for purity, with a small portion of older-vine fruit worked in old French barrels and rested on the lees, adding gentle texture without smothering the fruit. A splash of Grenache Blanc rounds it out.
Serve it well chilled with grilled prawns, a Thai green curry, roast chicken, or a board of soft goat's cheese. It's a confident dinner-party pour and a genuinely thoughtful gift for the Chenin lover in your life. We ship it across the UK, usually within a few days.
Food Pairing
This is a brilliant match for Thai green curry or a fragrant prawn pad thai, where the tropical fruit stands up to chilli and lemongrass while the citrus cuts through coconut richness. It's equally happy with a roast chicken and lemon, grilled sea bass, or a sharp goat's cheese salad. For something simple, pour it alongside fish and chips with a wedge of lemon.
- —Thai green chicken curry with jasmine rice
- —Roast chicken with lemon and thyme
- —Grilled sea bass with herb butter
- —Goat's cheese and beetroot salad
- —Battered haddock and chips
How to Serve
Temperature
Serve well chilled at around 8C. An hour in the fridge, or twenty minutes in an ice bucket, is ideal.
Decanting
No decanting needed. This is built for freshness, so simply pour and enjoy. If anything, let the first glass warm a degree or two in the glass to let the tropical fruit and floral notes open up.
Glass
A medium white wine glass with a slightly tapered rim concentrates the citrus and blossom aromatics nicely.
Cellaring
If keeping a bottle or two, store on its side somewhere cool, dark and stable. Best enjoyed within three to five years of release.
Behind the Wine
Swartland is a place of extremes, and Chenin Blanc loves it. Scorching, dry summers give way to cool, wet winters, and the best seasons here bring a slow, gentle ripening that lets the grapes hold onto their acidity while the flavours build. Bruce Jack works sustainably and picks by hand, drawing a third of the fruit from old, low-yielding bush vines. That patience shows in the glass: lush tropical fruit, lifted florals, and a citrus freshness that keeps everything crisp.
Ageing Potential
Bottled young and fresh to capture its vibrant fruit, this is drinking beautifully right now. It will happily hold for another three to five years, with the bright citrus softening slightly and the texture gaining a little more honeyed weight, but there's no need to wait.
The Land
The vineyards lie in the heart of Swartland on ancient sandstone and shale soils, at elevations from 60 to 300 metres. These free-draining soils and dryland conditions suit bush vine cultivation perfectly, encouraging small berries with rich colour, soft structure and real concentration. Old, low-yielding vines do much of the heavy lifting here, and you can taste their intensity.
The Winemaking
This is a wine built block by block. Fruit from three Swartland vineyards was hand-picked and vinified separately to keep each site's character intact. Nearly half the grapes saw a brief 24 hours of skin contact before a gentle press and a clean stainless-steel ferment. Younger bush vine fruit went into concrete, while the oldest material was fermented on its lees in seasoned 300-litre French barrels at cooler temperatures. A few months resting on fine lees added texture, then it was bottled young to lock in that vibrant, just-picked freshness.
The Swartland Region
Swartland, 'the black land' in Afrikaans, named for the renosterbos that darkens after rain, rolls out north of Cape Town across the hills around Malmesbury and Riebeek-Kasteel. It's hot, dry, and stubbornly characterful: a place of old bush vines, granite and koffieklip soils, and a community of growers who've made it the most quietly thrilling corner of South African wine. Concentration, freshness, and a wild streak you don't find elsewhere, that's Swartland in a glass.
About the Producer
Bruce Jack
Bruce Jack runs a small, tight-knit team out of South Africa, with head winemakers Bruce himself and Marlize Beyers working side by side for more than two decades. Between them they've made wine across several continents, but the through-line has always been authenticity, wines that taste of where they come from, made by people who actually know the vineyards. The 'Off the Charts' range, which the Tumbleweed wines belong to, is their love letter to South Africa's classic grape and region pairings, with labels nodding to the Basotho blanket and the wide, untamed landscapes of the Cape. Bruce Jack has appeared four years running in Drinks International's World's Most Admired Wine Brands, recognition the team has quietly earned, bottle by bottle.