Daschbosch Avon Clairette Blanche
£25.00
£33.33 per litre · incl. 20% VAT
In Stock — 2 bottles available
93Tim Atkin MW (South Africa Special Report)
93Tim Atkin MW (South Africa Special Report)
92Christian Eedes, Winemag.co.za
International Wine Challenge, Gold (2012 vintage)Sommelier Wine Awards, Gold (2012 vintage)Decanter World Wine Awards, Bronze (2014 vintage)The Wine Merchant Top 100 (2014 vintage)
Our Verdict
We listed this because it does something almost no other white in our range can: it genuinely surprises people. Clairette Blanche is rare even in South Africa, and tasting these old-vine Breedekloof bottlings reminded us why the variety deserves far more attention. There's a textural depth from the barrel ageing and lees work that lifts it well beyond its price, with the acidity to keep it fresh and food-friendly. This is for the drinker who has worked through the Chenins and Chardonnays and wants the next discovery. We hold very little of it, so if it intrigues you, don't wait.
Tasting Notes
A textured white built on old bush-vine fruit and time on the lees. The nose is subtle and savoury, that gentle leesy character giving way to fresh greengage and bright citrus. On the palate it turns fleshier, green plum and white pear filling out the mid-palate, while the barrel-fermented texture lends a soft, creamy weight. Acidity stays crisp and focused through a long, clean finish, so it never feels heavy. A grown-up white with quiet complexity.
Greengage and citrus
Fresh greengage plum and zesty citrus drive the aromatics, keeping the wine lively and bright rather than broad or blowsy.
Fleshy orchard fruit
Green plum and white pear fill the palate with a soft, juicy roundness that gives the wine real presence.
Leesy texture
Six months on the lees with regular stirring builds a creamy, faintly savoury mouthfeel and a subtle depth beneath the fruit.
About This Wine
If you think you've tasted everything South African white wine has to offer, this will stop you in your tracks. Clairette Blanche is a grape most British wine lovers have never even heard of, let alone poured, and that rarity is half the pleasure here. The other half is what's actually in the glass.
This comes from old bush vines rooted in the Breedekloof, a warm inland valley in the Western Cape that spent decades making bulk wine before a new generation of growers started proving what its ancient vineyards could really do. The fruit is hand-picked in the cool of early morning, whole-bunch pressed, then fermented and aged in well-seasoned French oak barrels with regular stirring of the lees. That patient handling is why the wine has such a satisfying weight and creamy texture rather than any heavy oak character.
Expect a subtle, leesy nose leading into greengage, fresh citrus, green plum and white pear, all carried by a fine line of acidity that keeps everything clean and lifted. It's a serious food wine. Try it with grilled prawns, a herby roast chicken, a zesty summer salad, or fresh seafood on the first warm evening of a British spring.
We deliver across the UK, and a bottle this unusual makes a brilliant gift for the curious drinker who believes they've tried it all. Tim Atkin has scored this wine 93 points.
Food Pairing
This is a food white through and through. Its crisp acidity and creamy texture make it a natural with seasonal seafood: think grilled sea bass, seared scallops, or a plate of dressed crab. It also handles lighter meat beautifully, from roast chicken to pork loin, and cuts cleanly through a zesty, herb-dressed salad on a warm evening.
- —Grilled sea bass with lemon and herbs
- —Seared scallops with a citrus butter
- —Roast chicken with green salad
- —Dressed Cornish crab on sourdough
- —Pork loin with apple and fennel
How to Serve
Temperature
Lightly chilled, around 10C. Too cold and you lose the leesy texture and orchard fruit, so let it warm slightly in the glass.
Decanting
No decanting needed, but a brief 15 minutes in the glass rewards patience. The savoury, leesy depth and pear notes open and gain definition as the wine breathes.
Glass
A medium to large white wine glass with a fuller bowl, giving the textured palate and subtle nose room to express itself.
Cellaring
Store on its side somewhere cool, dark and stable. Best drunk within a few years, where the fresh fruit and developing savoury complexity overlap.
Behind the Wine
Breedekloof is a warm, dry inland valley, tucked behind the mountains of the Breede River Valley, and that continental heat is tempered by cooler mountain air rolling down at night. The Clairette Blanche here comes from old, low-yielding bush vines that ask for very little and give back concentration rather than volume. Hand-picked in the cool of early morning at gentle ripeness, the fruit keeps its natural freshness, which is exactly what you taste: bright greengage and citrus underpinned by a quiet, leesy depth.
Ageing Potential
Ready to enjoy now, with the lees-built texture and fresh acidity already in fine balance. It will also hold and develop for a few years in the cellar, the fruit softening and the savoury, nutty notes growing richer over time.
The Land
The Avon plot is old bush vines, well into their fifth decade, grown low to the ground with no trellis and worked by hand. They sit on a blend of Longlands and Westleigh soils, with overhead irrigation easing them through the dry summers. Deliberately tiny yields mean each vine pours its energy into a handful of intensely flavoured bunches rather than quantity.
The Winemaking
This is gentle, patient winemaking. The whole bunches are pressed and the juice left to settle for a full day before fermentation begins, slowly, in fourth-fill French oak. Older barrels are the point: they lend texture and breath rather than vanilla or toast. Six months on the lees with regular bâtonnage, stirring those fine yeast sediments back through the wine, builds the creamy, fleshy mouthfeel that sets it apart. A final two to three months resting in the same barrels rounds everything into focus before bottling.
About the Producer
Daschbosch
Breedekloof doesn't have the reputation of Stellenbosch or the romance of Swartland, and that's rather the point. Tucked into the valley around Rawsonville, inland from Cape Town, this is a region long associated with bulk wine and co-operative cellars rather than single-vineyard bottlings. DaschBosch exists to prove that reputation wrong.
Created by uniWines, the Rawsonville-based producer with deep roots in the valley, DaschBosch is a project built specifically to seek out the old vines and heritage plantings that Breedekloof has quietly been sitting on for decades. Bush vines and forgotten blocks that never made it beyond a co-op tank, farmed by growers who watched fashion pass them by while their vineyards kept quietly producing something special. The wines under this label are the result of finally taking that material seriously.
The range's calling card is the Avon Clairette Blanche, made from vines on Isak Visagie's Avon farm on the slopes of the Olifantsberg. Clairette Blanche isn't a grape most UK wine drinkers will have encountered. It fell out of favour in South Africa decades ago, pulled up across the Cape in favour of more commercially fashionable varieties, but pockets survived in places like this, kept by growers who saw no reason to rip out vines that were still performing beautifully. Barrel-fermented and full of texture, it's a genuinely rare find: a dry white built from a grape that almost vanished entirely.
We stock DaschBosch because it does exactly what we look for in South African wine: it finds something singular in a place everyone else overlooks. Breedekloof rarely gets mentioned alongside the Cape's more celebrated regions, but that's beginning to change, and producers like this are the reason why. If you want to taste a piece of South African wine history that very few people outside the country have ever encountered, this is where to start.