Here & There Grenache Blanc
£9.89
£13.19 per litre · incl. 20% VAT
Only 5 bottles left
Swartland Grenache Blanc, fresh, textural, and quietly distinctive. Ripe apricot and peach lift from the glass, then the palate turns saline and crisp, finishing with a pithy bite that begs for another sip. A clever weeknight white for UK tables looking beyond the usual Sauvignon and Chenin.
Not for sale to persons under 18. Adult signature required on delivery.
UK wide delivery
Expert curated
Our Verdict
We brought this in because Grenache Blanc is one of the most under-the-radar grapes in South Africa right now, and Boutinot's Swartland team handle it with real confidence. What we love is the texture: pithy, saline, properly mouth-filling, without ever tipping into heaviness. It's the wine we reach for when someone asks for a white that's interesting but not difficult. Pair it with anything off the grill or anything spiced, and it just works. If you enjoy it, the rest of our Swartland white selection is well worth exploring next.
Tasting Notes
Lifted, gently floral aromatics greet you first: ripe apricot, white peach, and a whisper of warm spice from sun-baked Swartland fruit. The palate is the surprise. Generous and textural, with real pithy grip, this is Grenache Blanc with shoulders rather than the lean, neutral version some expect. Stone fruit carries through the mid-palate before a saline, almost briny finish snaps everything into focus. It leaves you wanting another sip, which is exactly the point.
About This Wine
Here's a white that proves Swartland isn't only about old-vine Chenin. Grenache Blanc, the quieter sibling of the red Grenache family, has found a remarkable home in this corner of the Western Cape, where drought-hardy vines dig deep into granite and koffieklip soils to pull out something fresh, textural, and gently exotic. The nose opens with ripe stone fruit: apricot, white peach, a brush of dried herbs and something faintly spicy. On the palate it's more generous than you'd expect from the colour in the glass, with a pithy, almost grippy texture that gives the wine real presence. Cool Atlantic breezes do their work on the finish, where a clean saline edge cuts through and keeps everything lifted. This is a brilliantly food-friendly bottle. Pour it with grilled prawns and lemon, a Thai green curry, roast chicken with thyme, or a simple plate of goat's cheese and walnuts. It's the kind of white that earns its place on the table on a Wednesday and still holds its own when friends turn up on Saturday. For anyone curious about what Swartland whites can do beyond the obvious, this is a generous, low-risk introduction. Delivered to your door anywhere in the UK, it also makes a thoughtful gift for the wine drinker who thinks they've tried everything.
Food Pairing
This is a wine built for the table rather than the aperitif hour. The texture handles rich fish dishes beautifully, while the saline finish slices through anything creamy or buttery. Think roast chicken with lemon and thyme, a pan of mussels in white wine, or a slab of grilled hake with herbed butter. It also has the weight to take on a mild Thai green curry without losing its nerve.
- —Roast chicken with lemon, garlic and thyme
- —Mussels steamed in white wine and shallots
- —Grilled hake with brown butter and capers
- —Thai green curry with prawns
- —Mature Comte or a soft goat's cheese with sourdough
How to Serve
Decanting
No decanting needed. If anything, give it a few minutes in the glass to come up off fridge temperature, which lets the floral aromatics and apricot notes properly unfurl.
Ageing & Cellaring
Drink now and over the next two to three years. This is built for early, joyful drinking rather than long cellaring. The freshness and saline drive are at their peak in youth, and there's little to gain by holding bottles back.
The Land
These vines dig into Swartland's koffieklip soils, a deep mix of clay studded with small stones that hold just enough water to see drought-resistant Grenache Blanc through long, dry summers. Roots travel deep, yields stay low, and the cool Atlantic wind off the west coast keeps acids fresh. The result is a wine with weight and salinity in equal measure.
The Winemaking
Hand-picked Grenache Blanc, fermented to capture the variety's natural texture rather than mask it. The result is all about line and grip: ripe stone-fruit aromatics carried by phenolic weight on the palate, with a saline finish that suggests gentle handling and minimal intervention. No heavy oak signature here, just fruit, skin contact texture, and the cool Atlantic freshness baked into the grapes themselves. A wine made by people who trust the site to do the talking.
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
Boutinot
Paul Boutinot spent years searching the world for a site that could make wine on his terms. He found it on the Schapenberg, a windswept ridge above Somerset West looking out over False Bay and the Atlantic. From day one Waterkloof was farmed organically, with biodynamic conversion following soon after. Cattle, sheep and goats roam the estate producing compost and grazing cover crops, and draught horses do the work tractors usually do, keeping the soil loose and alive. Cellarmaster Nadia Barnard, who joined at the very beginning and now runs the cellar, takes those naturally balanced grapes and gives them as little intervention as possible. It's farming as philosophy, and you can taste it.