Juices Untamed Chenel

The Daredevils’ Drums Chenel is a white wine that deliberately breaks with the usual rules of winemaking. Its extraordinary character comes above all from an intracellular fermentation that extends over several months – an unconventional method that gives the wine intense aromas, depth and a distinctive aromatic complexity.

The grapes come from selected Chenel parcels of our estate in Stanford, just 5 km from the Atlantic. The cool coastal climate and the highly alkaline maritime limestone soils lay the foundation for natural freshness, minerality and precise tension.

Daredevils’ Drums is our playground for wild ideas and unconventional methods. Here we deliberately question the classic rules of cellar work and let ourselves be guided by curiosity, instinct and a love of experimentation. This Chenel is a particularly distinctive example: instead of a classic, quick fermentation, the wine undergoes a long intracellular fermentation in a pressure-resistant stainless steel tank.

The grapes are hand-picked, chilled overnight, destemmed, partially crushed and gently pressed. Intracellular fermentation then begins and extends over eight months. After partial malolactic conversion, the wine becomes fully dry. A subsequent maturation in used French oak barrels rounds it off, without masking its freshness and mineral character.

The result is an unusual, deep Chenel with intense aromatics, fine minerality and a subtly integrated oak note – a wine that expresses both the freedom of Daredevils’ Drums and the unique limestone terroir of the Springfontein Rim.