Two Dogs a Peacock and a Horse Sauvignon Blanc
£15.49
£20.65 per litre · incl. 20% VAT
In Stock — 12 bottles available
Sauvignon Blanc with a sense of humour. From Franschhoek's self-styled Rebels of the Vine, Black Elephant Vintners, this is the bottle you pour when the sun's out, the music's on, and nobody's keeping score. Bright, fruit-packed, and so easy to drink you'll wonder where it went.
Not for sale to persons under 18. Adult signature required on delivery.
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Our Verdict
We taste a lot of South African Sauvignon Blanc, and most of it plays it safe, clean, grassy, predictable. This one doesn't. There's a tropical exuberance and a creamy lees-driven texture that lifts it well above its price point, and the Black Elephant crew clearly had fun making it. We list it for the customer who buys wine to share rather than swirl: party hosts, garden lunchers, anyone tired of the same old Marlborough Sauvignon. At under £16 it's one of our easiest weeknight recommendations, and it tends to leave the shelves in pairs.
Tasting Notes
Pour this and you're greeted by an exuberant burst of white peach, passionfruit and litchi, with a wild herbal lift that hints at Cape fynbos. The palate doesn't hold back either, ripe melon, mango and guava roll across the tongue with a gentle creaminess from extended lees contact, giving the wine more weight than your average Sauvignon Blanc. A snap of gooseberry and bright minerality keeps the finish clean, lively and ready for the next sip.
About This Wine
Some wines want to be analysed. This one just wants to be poured. Black Elephant Vintners, the Franschhoek trio who call themselves Rebels of the Vine, built their reputation on wines that don't take themselves too seriously, and Two Dogs a Peacock and a Horse is their crowd-pleasing white in full technicolour. The glass tells you everything you need to know: a pale, green-tinged shimmer, then a nose that practically jumps out at you, white peach, passionfruit, pear, lychee, and a whisper of fynbos for that unmistakable Cape character. On the palate it's lively and generous, with melon, mango, guava and gooseberry rolling into a creamy mid-palate from extended lees contact. The finish is bright, mineral, and dangerously moreish. Franschhoek, Dutch for 'French corner', has been making wine since the Huguenots arrived in the late 1600s, and the valley's mountain-trapped breezes give whites like this their balance of ripeness and tension. This is the bottle for long Sunday lunches in the garden, the first proper barbecue of British summer, or a Friday night when the working week deserves a send-off. Equally happy alongside grilled prawns, a Thai green curry, or a wedge of goat's cheese. Delivered across the UK, usually within a couple of days. A brilliant choice for someone who loves Sauvignon Blanc but wants something with a bit more personality than the usual New Zealand line-up.
Food Pairing
This is a wine built for sunshine food. Think grilled prawns with garlic and lemon, a Thai green curry, or a goat's cheese and watermelon salad on a warm afternoon. The tropical fruit and creamy lees texture handle a touch of chilli beautifully, while the bright finish cuts through richer dishes like crab cakes or a wedge of mature Wensleydale.
- —Grilled tiger prawns with garlic, chilli and lemon
- —Thai green chicken curry with jasmine rice
- —Goat's cheese, watermelon and mint salad
- —Crab cakes with a herby mayonnaise
- —Seared scallops with pea purée
How to Serve
Decanting
No decanting needed. This is an aromatic, fruit-driven Sauvignon Blanc built for immediate pleasure, open, pour and drink while it's cold and fresh.
The Winemaking
This is a Sauvignon Blanc made for charm rather than austerity. Extended lees contact is the key decision here, the wine spends time resting on its spent yeast cells after fermentation, which softens the sharp edges and adds a creamy, almost textured weight to the mid-palate. The result is a Sauvignon Blanc that still carries the variety's lifted aromatics and bright acidity, but rounds out with a richness that makes it more forgiving, more generous, and a great deal easier to keep pouring.
About the Producer
Black Elephant Vintners
Some producers let the wine speak for itself. Black Elephant Vintners lets the label do a bit of shouting too, and once you know the story, you understand why.
This Franschhoek outfit is the work of three friends, Kevin Swart, Jacques Wentzel and Raymond Ndlovu, who pooled their different backgrounds and decided winemaking should be taken seriously without taking itself too seriously. The name is a play on two of those surnames: Swart and Ndlovu become 'black elephant', and Jacques supplies the 'vintner'. It's a small joke that tells you a lot about how this team thinks.
They call themselves the Rebels of the Vine, a loose, collaborative team who work off good music and better instincts as much as convention. That irreverence shows up everywhere, from wine names like 'Three Men in a Tub With a Rubber Duck' to 'The Fox & The Flamingo', but underneath the whimsy is proper, considered winemaking. Fruit comes from vineyard sites scattered across the Franschhoek valley, with cooler parcels from Elgin, on the Cape coast, brought in specifically for their Méthode Cap Classique. That reach across warmer valley floor and cool coastal sites gives them options most single-vineyard producers don't have.
We stock Black Elephant Vintners because South African wine doesn't need to be earnest to be excellent. Alongside the structured, serious reds of Stellenbosch, it's worth remembering the Cape also produces winemakers who want you to smile before you even pull the cork. The wines back up the joke: bright, well-made Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc, a savoury red blend with real character, and a Zero Dosage MCC that shows genuine technical skill behind the playful branding.
If you've only ever associated Franschhoek with fine dining and formal tasting rooms, this is the other side of the valley: same quality, same sense of place, considerably more fun in the telling.