I was spoilt this Christmas with my family and friends giving me what I love most:wine! Although my day to day life exists around wine and being fortunate to have the opportunity to taste many different wines, it is still special to receive a bottle or two as a gift.

The 'givers' tell me that they do some research on wines that I am enjoying and then try and select something I may not have tasted recently.
One of the wines I received was the Lazanou Organic Vineyards Chenin Blanc 2008. Although I had tasted (and thoroughly enjoyed) the wine in November at the Nedbank Green Wine Awards, where it was the outright winner for the best organic wine in South Africa, I never bought some for myself.

So on Boxing Day we were invited out to friends for lunch. They love their wine and Marlene's food is always so delicious. As they were preparing a cold buffet I thought Chenin would be a perfect partner for the food.
Marlene prepared turkey in a delicious summery peach infused sauce, Christmas ham with light creamy mustard dressing and platters of smoked salmon trout accompanied by bowls of interesting salads.

The Lazanou Organic Vineyards Chenin Blanc 2008 offers aromas of apple with enticing hints of green melon leading to rich flavours of crunchy apple (since the wine was kept on the lees for 6 months) balanced by clean acidity. We were impressed how well this unwooded Chenin Blanc complemented the food and sorry we only had one bottle!

Lazanou Organic Vineyards was started by Josef Lazarus and Candice Stephanou when they bought the farm in 2002. It had been operating as a plant nursery and at the time had only a tiny vineyard (0.6 hectare) of Chenin Blanc.

Situated in the beautiful Wellington Valley the farm is small with a total of area of just over 8 hectares. Today just over 5 hectares are under vine with varieties suitable to the microclimate found on the farm such as Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, Viognier, Shiraz and Mourvedre. The remaining area includes cow pastures, olive groves, a fruit orchard and a bird sanctuary.
Lazanou Organic Vineyards are certified organic producers with the SGS (Societe Generale de Surveillance) and so international organic standards are practised in the vineyards and the cellar.

I will be buying more of this wine to drink now but I feel that with its complexity it may be an idea to cellar a few bottles try in a couple of years.

“I bumped into the Syrah/Mourvèdre 2008 blend of Lazanou Organic Vineyards in the so called Oenothèque (another well hidden “appendix” of the fair where you could taste part of the winning wines from Challenge Millésime-BIO as well as some others – I found it only on the second day of the fair by pure chance!), fell in love with the wine’s bright character and flavour that equally expressed both varieties (18.5/20) and decided to find Lazanou’s table as I’ve never heard of him before”.

“Jo Lazarus, the very friendly owner of this small farm in Wellington (8.5 ha) made me taste his other wines nearly all of which were first or second vintage. I liked very much his Chenin 2008, un-wooded but aged on lees – an example of elegance and minerality layered with ripe fruit and adequate acidity (17/20) and his very distinct but interesting barrel fermented Syrah 2007 of another clone (18/20). We discussed a bit (I was “flying”), Jo said that organic farming was comparatively new for South Africa but gaining momentum and that he’s happy with the results he has obtained so far. So was I and judging by the two French guys tasting on my side and their comments they were happy too.”