.: Brookdale Estate introduces their new Twenty Field Blend with lunch

Monday, June 16, 2025

Brookdale Estate introduces their new Twenty Field Blend with lunch

We are always appreciative when we are blessed with transport to functions
If John drives, he cannot drink and petrol prices nowadays have to be taken into account, our account
This handsome white bus took us all the way to Paarl and back

It was good to see some old and young media friends again

The function was in the Bistro restaurant where we were to meet the two new winemakers

Welcomed with a glass of Brookdale 2023 Bradbourne,

a white blend of Grenache Blanc, Roussanne, Picpoul and Marsanne

It has richness on the nose, complex stone fruit with depth and length

Apricot, peach, lime lemon zest give long flavours and it calls loudly for food

The entrance to the Bistro

It was a bitterly cold day, so we headed for the fireplace
The two winemakers were there to introduce themselves and we had a good chance to chat to them
Winemaker Xander Sadie was chatting to a guest

Shanice du Preez, pictured here with the long dark hair, says she is the shortest winemaker ever
Lynne and she compared heights! Not much in it

Chef Gary Coetzee with Terence van der Walt of Siris Vintners

Two vintage journalists, Melvin Minnaar and Greg Landman

Brookdale 2023 Sixteen Field Blend was served next. A field blend is something that is often grown in France
The two hectare vineyard is interplanted with several different varietals in each row, with just white grapes
There is another just with red varietals
They are all mixed in each row and harvested together to make one amorphous blend
Xander told us that some of the difficulties are season, position and climate
as some of the varietals ripen at different stages. To even them out,
they pick every fourth row with its mixture of varietals
so they have to vinify those first and pick the other rows at later intervals

The restaurant all set for our wine tasting. Lunch was to follow

General manager Yvonne Coetzee with some of the restaurant staff

The Brookdale wine selection set out on the tables for tasting

All seated for the tasting and lunch

We were there to meet winemakers Xander Sadie and Shanice du Preez and they introduced themselves

They are very sparky together, Xander knows a lot about the terroir and the vines at Brookdale

Shanice is also competent about this subject and knows her winemaking so she is in the cellar

Shanice du Preez qualified with her degree in winemaking and oenology at Stellenbosch University

and was then invited onto the Cape Winemakers Guild Protégé programme

You have to be good to be admitted to the programme. She did stages with Abrie Beeslaar at Kanonkop,

with Charles Hopkins at de Grendel and with Duncan Savage at his Salt River winery

What a training, with three of the best winemakers in the business

She also has participated in two overseas harvests, one in France and one in Portugal

Xander spoke about the farm and its terroir

Backed by the Klein Drakenstein Mountains, they have sandstone formations and granite soils with schist at the base

Owner Tim Rudd saw the potential of the farm and what Brookdale might become,

even though it was covered by invasive aliens which all had to be uprooted

He bought it in 2016 and the work began

Paarl is a hot area with high winter rainfall and the farm is North facing, so it is fully dry land in the summer

No mulch or dry material can be used in the vineyards because of the risk of mountain fires

They stand together Xander spends most of the time in the vineyards, Shanice in the wine cellar

Studies in concentration

Brookdale Sales manager Jacus Marais was able to supply much more information about the wine and the vineyards

Maryna Calow, WOSA Communications manager

Terence van der Walt of Siris Vintners

Smiles from Chef Gary Coetzee and one of his assistants

GM of the Brookdale Hotel (and wife of the Chef) Yvonne Coetzee

The wines for the tasting

All set to taste the wines, guided by the winemakers

The 2023 Chenin is made from old vines which have been carefully nurtured. They get 6.5 tons a hectare
There are three blocks which are harvested separately and vinified for 11 months on the lees
and 11 months in Foudres, which add some oak to the Chenin, then the two lots are blended
Golden on the nose from oak and fruit, quite attractive. Perfumed with jasmine, quince and citrus
The wine is rounded on the palate, with many layers of complex fruits
The oak is just supporting and doing it well. Quince appears again on the palate

The next wine was the Bradbourne 2024 a blend of Grenache Blanc, Picpoul Blanc, Roussanne and Marsanne
Aromatic on the nose, with a strange whiff of brandy
It's a bit shy at first, then complex fruit like white peach, gooseberry and marmalade appear
On the palate, full and waxy, lots of fruit shouting for attention then lovely citrus takes over
The wine has lovely texture and long flavours. It needs time

We next tasted the maiden release of the 2024 Twenty Field Blend

The field blend even has five Pinotage vines, and Portuguese varietals which add tannins, fruit flavours and body

Cinsault adds colour and others the alcohol

Vanilla oak comes first, sweetness of fruit too; it's very forward and complex

Bitter tannins on the lips, mouth puckering tannins, tobacco, cherry, plum, blackberry, deep dark fruit

There is some excitement and a hint of what it might be

Spice on the end with black pepper then dark oak and the fruit returns

This needs time but has potential

The Brookdale 2024 Sixteen Field Blend was next
An intriguing nose with lots of complexity and interest
Hints of Viognier and some Semillon fat on the palate, which opens with fruit and grows to a crescendo of flavours,
stone fruit, citrus keeping the acidity in balance with guava on the end
The wines are fermented in a concrete amphora

The aim is to produce three or maybe four white Field blends and four reds

After the tasting, we did a quick cellar tour to see the barrels and huge oak foudres