Store Manager Richard recently had the great pleasure in meeting Ken Forrester, one of the most influential winemakers in South Africa. A passionate advocate for South African wines, he showed the world just how good Chenin Blanc can be. The wine that he used to achieve this was ‘FMC’. An oaked Chenin Blanc that would draw comparisons with some of the best white wines in the world. It certainly revolutionised the image of Chenin Blanc for many South African wine drinkers and crucially the younger generation of winemakers that would follow. Prior to his visit Richard had heard about this wine but not tasted it, or any others of his. It is not often that he is blown away with a whole range of wines from one producer, but of the wines he tasted, each and everyone were so good. In fact he was so convinced these will be popular with you all, he ordered a mixed pallet of 112 cases across his whole range! As a reward doing this, and to tempt you even more, he can also offer an introductory launch price on each of the wines while stocks last. The range consists of... The Petit Wine Range His duty to man kind. This is his reliable range, it’s drinkable, it’s reliable, it’s guilt free and you can enjoy time and time again. Driven by soft ripeness and pure expression of the nature of the fruit. They strive for texture and balance in all the wines so that even a simple wine can have a beautiful nose, rich and satisfying mouth feel and a lingering aftertaste that demands a second sip. The Reserve Range. Here they are solely responsible for the cultivation of the vines and selection of the fruit, mostly from the family property in Stellenbosch, just 5 kms from the cool Atlantic and in the sheltered lee of the majestic Helderberg mountain. This range includes older vineyards, showing more depth of character and concentration. Ideal food wines, with structure and elegance. The Icon Range These are their single parcel vines, where an older, special vineyard like a small postage stamp on the map, produces exceptional fruit and extremely low yields and here they attempt to make a statement of purity, intensity, complex concentration of fruit and elegant balance. Destined to be limited by provenance and finally after barrel aging they only select the very best individual barrels to go into bottle, ensuring a unique superlative wine, justifiably the pinnacle of their efforts. These wines are available upstairs now. If you wish to reserve any for collection, please contact: richard@campbellsofleyburn.co.uk or tel 01969 624391 (Please note: Products and pricing details subject to change and correct at time of publiction 20/11/2024.) |
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Ken Forrester Wines Ken Forrester, aka "Mr. Chenin", is the owner-winemaker of Ken Forrester Wines. He also co-founded the Chenin Blanc Association. In 1993 with a young family, he and his wife Teresa set their hearts on an historic vineyard in Stellenbosch. Originally granted in 1689 as Zandberg, this beautiful farm, complete with historic Cape Dutch homestead built in 1694 had stood vacant and derelict when they bought it on a public auction in 1993. A massive renovation was undertaken, both in the vineyards (Ken) and the house (Teresa!). With most of the vineyard planted to Chenin Blanc it was decided to enlist the help of good friend and Top Winemaker, Martin Meinert, with the quest to produce Chenin Blanc that could rival any white wine in the world. That was 19 years ago, since then the wines have been poured at numerous grand events including the opening of The Scottish Parliament (Ken has been known to wear a tartan skirt – the Forresters have their origins in the Western Isles of Scotland!) as well as the 85th birthday of our own icon, ex President Mandela. The wines have received massive international acclaim with literally hundreds of awards and accolades and the growth of the brand has been nothing short of meteoric, in a 19 short years. The picture perfect vineyards beneath the Helderberg Mountains are testimony to the quest for perfectly ripe fruit and show the commitment and attention to detail, that is required for benchmark wines in this day and age of immense competition and much improved quality. A Vison for Sustainable Farming It is their vision to improve the lot of their employees by growing the business and thereby providing maximum job opportunities in a market that is desperate for support. They go a step further, they farm sustainably with no herbicides or pesticides, they till by hand, hugely labour intensive, but very satisfying, they prune, thin bunches and leaves all by hand and finally they harvest by hand. This additional employment they hope goes some way to improving the quality of life in their community and they know that if every community looked after their own, no-one would go wanting. This is their proposal, and consequently each bottle is a victory and represents a small change – for the better – in someone’s life. All his wines are hand picked – every single range!! |
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 Ken Forrester Petit Chenin Blanc, Stellenbosch, South Africa 2023 75cl rrp £14.99 Special Offer Only £12.49 or purchase any 3 bottles of the Petit Range for £33! Tasting Note Fresh white from one of South Africa's most respected producers. Perfect everyday drinking wine. A youthful fresh wine with quince and pear drop flavours. Earlier picked freshness shows on palate with crunchy green apple and grapefruit flavours. Winemaking Hand harvested, fermented cool, bottled early to show the freshest fruit flavours. Food Matching Serve with all flavoursome, light Al Fresco Summertime meals. Should last half an hour with the cap off and reach for the next bottle! |
 Ken Forrester Petit Rosé, Stellenbosch, South Africa 2024 75cl rrp £14.99 Special Offer Only £12.49 or purchase any 3 bottles of the Petit Range for £33! Tasting Note A fruit-forward blend of Grenache and Viognier grapes, awash with strawberries and cherries, with ripe raspberries on the finish and a waft of rose petal keeping everything fresh. Winemaking Hand harvested, fermented cool, bottled early to show the freshest fruit flavours. The soil is Hutton, while the average age of the vines is 10 years. Yields are between 6 and 8 tons per hectare. Food Matching Great with cold meats, salmon and salad. |
 Ken Forrester Petit Pinotage, Stellenbosch, South Africa 2022 75cl rrp £14.99 Special Offer Only £12.49 or purchase any 3 bottles of the Petit Range for £33! Tasting Note A spicy and accessible example of the South African red grape, with spice and mulberry, plum pudding and cherry. Winemaking Cool fermented after a cold maceration on the skins and pressed off early, before the development of hard tannins. This unoaked Petit Pinotage reflects the modern fruit driven wine style that is in huge demand today. Food Matching Can be served with a generous slice of pizza or a barbeque or a 'braai' as our South African friends would call it. |
 Ken Forrester Petit Cabernet Sauvignon, Stellenbosch, South Africa 2022 75cl rrp £14.99 Special Offer Only £12.49 or purchase any 3 bottles of the Petit Range for £33! Tasting Note A youthful wine showing fresh ripe mulberries and plums with a spicy undertone. A soft, rich and fruit-driven wine. Enjoy this wine with your favourite dish and friends. Winemaking All the fruit is hand harvested to ensure high standards from the outset. Food Matching Great with duck or richer chicken dishes. |
 Ken Forrester Petit Sauvignon Blanc, Stellenbosch, South Africa 2024 75cl rrp £14.99 Special Offer Only £12.49 or purchase any 3 bottles of the Petit Range for £33! Tasting Note Lovely complexity with mix of tropical fruit, tangy grassy notes, fig leaves & nectarine nuances with a crisp dry finish. Winemaking All the fruit is hand harvested to ensure high standards from the outset. Food Matching Ideal with fish, chicken & pasta and friends. |
 Ken Forrester Pat’s Garden Reserve 2019, Stellenbosch, South Africa 75cl rrp £19.49 Special Offer Only £15.49 Pats garden - named after his dearest Mother in law, this patch of Merlot vineyard sits in front of Pats cottage. She is 89 he speaks so highly of her. Stunning fruit forward merlot. Tasting Note Pat’s Garden Merlot has always been a blend of predominantly Merlot with the addition of about 8%-12% Cabernet Franc. Exhibiting a deep ruby hue, it allures with an attractive bouquet of cassis, ripe plum, and hints of dark chocolate. The velvety palate flexes ripe fruit flavours balanced splendidly with structured tannins and a delicate thread of acidity. Further, it boasts an admirable ageing potential and crescendos into a graceful, lasting finish. It pairs superbly with hearty dishes, from roast lamb to mature cheeses. In essence, it's a superior interpretation of Merlot that eloquently captures the nuances of the Stellenbosch terroir. |
 Ken Forrester Old Vine Reserve Chenin Blanc 2024, Stellenbosch, South Africa 75cl rrp £18.49 Special Offer Only £15.49 This wine is a great example of the harmonious balance which can be achieved between fruit and delicate oak/vanilla flavours, as they combine to form complex, soft flavours with sufficient body to enhance even spicy and full flavoured meals. Voted the best Chenin Blanc in the world 2023 Tasting Note Golden hued and full bodied, with melon and spicy baked apple aromas. Layered, with mineral notes enhanced by honeycomb and caramel flavours from lees contact. This wine is a great example of the harmonious balance which can be achieved between fruit and delicate oak/vanilla flavours, as they combine to form complex, soft flavours with sufficient body to enhance even spicy and full flavoured meals. Food Matching Can be served with varied spicy dishes, full flavoured fish or chicken dishes. Ideal with crayfish, prawns. A true benchmark for relaxed enjoyment. |
 Ken Forrester Sauvignon Blanc Reserve 2023, Stellenbosch, South Africa 75cl rrp £18.49 Special Offer Only £15.49 Tasting Note This wine shows lovely complexity with mix of tangy grassy notes, fig leaf, peach and nectarine nuances. Brisk acidity with minerality on the palate which is typical of the long hang time in our cool region. Food Matching Very good while preparing a meal or out on the patio. Ideal with fish, chicken, pasta and friends. |
 Ken Forrester The Gypsy 2017, Stellenbosch, South Africa 75cl rrp £49.99 Special Offer Only £41.99 65% Grenache / 35% Syrah. Low yields with small, concentrated berries resulted in a limited production of a little over 1500 bottles. Almost 3 years of barrel ageing before making up the final blend, only to bottle the wine and allow it an additional 2 years of bottle age. Grown on the highest point of all his vineyards. 800m above sea level. This plot has a security guard on it, the area is a protected zone for Baboons but they eat all the fruit as where they live this is the last patch of fruit left. You aren’t allowed to shoot them, but the Baboons stay away if somebody is on site. They treat the Grenache in this plot slightly different, it is hand picked, and then dropped from a height into stainless steel vat. Which are temp controlled and they are low temps for this process. He then leaves over night this stabilises the juices. Then next day as process called carbonic macération has occurred. This is a technique used in Beaujolais in France, carbonic macération - in which whole grapes are fermented in a carbon dioxide rich environment before crushing. Conventional alcoholic fermentation involves crushing the grapes to free the juice and pulp from the skin with yeast serving to convert sugar into ethanol. Carbonic maceration ferments most of the juice while it is still inside the grape, although grapes at the bottom of the vessel are crushed by gravity and undergo conventional fermentation. The resulting wine is fruity with very low tannins. Tasting Note A very concentrated, focused blend with layers of deep fruit. The character is expectedly somewhat “wild”, a little brambly with hints of nutmeg, cinnamon, dark spices, with vanilla scents and a distinct, concentrated red-fruit focus. Great for laying down and keeping for at least ten years but already rewarding if allowed to breathe in a decanter. |
 Ken Forrester The FMC 2023, Stellenbosch, South Africa 75cl rrp £58.99 Special Offer Only £44.99 'The FMC' is his top cuvée. The initials stand for 'Forrester, Meinert, Chenin the 'M' referring to Ken's long time friend and collaborator Martin Meinert with whom this wine was created. This has been renamed by wine critic Matthew Jukes as f**king marvellous Chenin and you can see why! Ken admits that it’s his favourite variety, although due to its adaptability and modest, shy nature, it is sometimes misconstrued. Yet, it creates wines that sing when properly instructed and exposed to just the appropriate amount of gentle sunlight. Definitely a difficult grape, but oh, so gratifying! A careful selection of up to 10 harvests through the same vineyard – choosing the bunches at their peak, even using drones to determine picking, naturally fermented in French oak about 50% new and aged for a year in barrel on the lees. Tasting Note The pinnacle of what we consider to be the finest expression of the grapes of this varietal – an icon Chenin, a challenge to the world! Rich, layered with dried apricot, vanilla and honey. Will gain additional complexity with cellaring. Food Matching Enjoy with special friends as an exciting aperitif or with spiced dishes, even mild seafood/shellfish or curries. Great with exotic Eastern spiced foods. |
 Ken Forrester Dirty Little Secret FIVE, Stellenbosch, South Africa 75cl rrp £99.99 Special Offer Only £79.99 We took a trip backwards in time to make a thoroughly modern wine. A wine that will age beautifully for at least the next ten years. A tribute hopefully to the age & concentration of the vines, as well as to low, very low interruptive winemaking… a natural wine in every sense! Finally bottled totally “naturally” with no cold stabilization or fining. Remarkably the wine is crystal clear, slightly golden in a good way, with a lime green rim. How did I do that you ask?… Well it’s unfiltered, unrefined and just a Dirty Little Secret – naturally! Only 7 x 400L barrels produced. A tight, bright, mineral wine with texture and mouthfeel and a hint of phenolic structure, a soft acidity and a pear drop intensity. Crafted to age and gain complexity in the bottle. A special old vineyard planted in 1959 – hand harvested bush vine fruit – wild yeast ferment in old French barrels – unhurried and undisturbed wine making – multiple vintages blended as “reserve” wines held back are added for complexity. His idea behind this is to make a wine which competes with all the young cool winemakers, basically his mates kids who are making orange wines. He asked them what makes their wines natural. They said - they don’t filter, Ken doesn’t filter but some of these orange wines are cloudy, Ken says that’s lazy wine making, if you are gentle you can make a wine which is clear with filtering. They said they use wild yeast, Ken only uses the yeast which are there naturally in the grapes. So he set about making a wine that the cool kids would recognise. However this wine is still totally clear. It’s a non vintage. But this is because every year he incorporate the years before. So he started 2015 - waited three years then made wine 1 with 2015,2015,2017 vintages. Then wine was same but with addition of 2018 and so on. It’s a unique approach, but an awesome wine with a different taste sensation with each sip. |
 Ken Forrester Sparklehorse Cap Classique, Stellenbosch, South Africa 75cl rrp £25.99 Special Offer Only £19.99 Ken Forrester Wines has a superb reputation for Chenin Blanc, and this first sparkling wine in the classic tradition is no exception. A carefully selected cool vineyard site allows the grapes to mature while maintaining the all important refreshing acidity. Tasting Note 100% Chenin Blanc. Made by the Cap Classique or traditional method, this wine aged for 18 months on lees to develop a creaminess and delicate mousse while still maintaining bright, fresh apple, pear and quince aromas. An ideal bubbly to celebrate with and equally at home with light creamy chicken and fish dishes. |
 Ken Forrester The Bridge Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 Alexander Valley, Sonoma USA 75cl rrp £115.00 Special Offer Only £89.99 This joint venture is on a vineyard based in Alexander valley in Sonoma country in USA. A collaboration between the Katz family and Ken Forrester, hence the name. Sadly no longer made due to devastating fires in this region but an absolutely stunning wine, Ken wanted to age the wine for 5 years but fires and Covid prevented that so now the 2015 is released. Product Notes Ken Forrester Wines The Bridge Cabernet Sauvignon is an opulent South African wine demonstrating character and elegance. Displaying a vibrant rubeous hue, the wine teases with a delightful bouquet of ripe berries, traces of plum and hints of spicy oak. On the palate, it features a harmonious interaction of tannins and fruit, with well-defined flavours of blackcurrant and cassis, punctuated with a touch of cigar box. Aged in new French Oak, its lingering finish exhibits both sophistication and vigor. A luxurious treat to pair excellently with steak or mature cheese. A testament to Forrester's winemaking prowess. Tasting Notes Elegantly balanced Cabernet, from a relatively cool site, showing restraint power with concentration. This wine displays notes of wood spice, earth, black and red currants, liquorice and tobacco leaf. It is full-bodied, has excellent purity and was bottled with no fining or filtration. Simply outstanding, one of my favourite wines of the year! Why not join our mailing list for all our in-store happenings... |
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