2023 Brookdale Sixteen Grapes Field Blend White, Paarl, Western Cape, South Africa

Kaleidoscopic burst of lifted, diaphanous florals; jasmine, orange blossom, sun-drenched hay. Complex yet so fresh; green apples flow in, white pear, simmering in light. There’s wet stone, a granite dusting, leading to a palate sculpted by an electric current of acidity. Stone fruit coalesces in this energetic structure, peaches and cream, winter melon and lime drops. Tangy and long, quinine and pink grapefruit follow the salt trail to the finish. 

The Brookdale Sixteen Field Blend exemplifies this mission. Tim Rudd is fascinated with the art of true field blends where grapes are ‘blended’ in the ‘field’, rather than grown and vinified separately before blending. In South Africa, field blends are typically different varieties grown in the same vineyard block, but kept separate in rows.