Rianie Strydom & Jonathan Maltus, IKOYI Red and White

• 12x IKOYI Red, 2022 (80% Cabernet Franc, 20% Syrah)
• 12x IKOYI White, 2023 (Chenin Blanc)

Please note that this purchase is in bond. If you wish to have your wines delivered to your home or transferred to a third-party facility, please email us after your order is placed.

Focussing on a favourite variety of ours, Cabernet Franc, we were keen to work with Jonathan Maltus OBE, one of the original Saint Emilion garagistes, whose pioneering Le Dôme remains the largest expression of the variety (80% of the blend) in Bordeaux. Jonathan has teamed up with Cape Winemakers Guild member Rianie Strydom of Strydom Family Wines, who sourced the best quality, sustainably-farmed grapes from vines planted in 2010 on the northern slopes of the vaunted Helderberg region in Stellenbosch.

We also requested they craft a top-notch Chenin Blanc, preferably from older vines, as the best examples of this signature white from South Africa has rare appeal to both lovers of white Burgundy and Sauvignon Blanc.

We are absolutely delighted to have partnered with the fantastic mothers2mothers charity. Mothers2mothers train and employ local women living with HIV as community health workers to meet the growing and urgent health needs of women, children and families in ten African countries. Their work is incredibly important and we will be donating 10% of the profits of all sales of IKOYI and to support the charity.

IKOYI Red, 2022

The immediacy, and aromatic brightness and freshness is uplifting, like a cool breeze wafting past scented with damsons, new leather and Christmas spices. Notes of smoked paprika, lavender, plum skin, boysenberry and nori are teased out latterly, and the oak is already well integrated. Such a sophisticated, positively aristocratic nose, it does not immediately shout South Africa and perhaps shows Jonathan’s “Old World wines in the New World approach”. The palate is similarly lively on the attack with a mid-palate succulence built around ripe black cherries, vanilla pod, cacao nibs and cherry tobacco, but the high-toned cedary, herbal tannins, and a brisk vein of lithe and spicy acidity ensure both length and precision. Jonathan deliberately chose a leaner, more focussed Cabernet Franc on which to base the blend which is nicely rounded out by 20% plumper, darker Syrah fruit. This should age with commendable grace and style over the next few years.

IKOYI White, 2023

Tried En Primeur (still cloudy), this shows tremendous promise. The combination on the nose of exoticism (beeswax, macadamia nuts, yuzu, yellow plums) and vigour (grapefruit peel, fresh ginger, wet stones, sea breeze, apple blossom, pine) is very appealing. The palate is still knitting together but also has a good balance of zestiness and slightly richer nuances. Juicy citrus and white stone fruit convert to waxed pears, toasted pine nuts and salted caramel, but always pulled along by tongue-tingling acids. The passage in oak has given the wine broader shoulders but done nothing to stunt the tension and purity.