Before assembling at the Boekenhoutskloof cellar for a tasting to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the brand, I wandered through the nearby semillon vineyards where the last grapes of the 2026 vintage were still on the vines. The bunches were protected by netting to keep the shrivelling, late-ripening grapes from the depredations of birds. While almost everywhere in the world noble late harvest wines are out of fashion, there’s a queue waiting for the latest Boekenhoutskloof release.
Like much of what has happened at the property in these three decades, the Semillon Noble Late Harvest is counterintuitive, contrary to fashion and enormously successful. In this it fairly reflects Marc Kent, the man whose vision, pig-headedness and genius are largely responsible for Boekenhoutskloof becoming the most important (by value and volume) wine business created in postapartheid South Africa.
Kent makes and sells the wines he likes. In an era when changing fashions and fear of sugar have reduced the producers of the world’s great dessert wines to near penury, he persists in making botrytis semillon.
The latest release — the 2022 — was shown at the end of a splendid line-up at the 30th anniversary tasting. It was sumptuous, better than many of the Cru Classé Sauternes, which are universally regarded as the benchmark of the style. It’s no longer the bargain it used to be, selling now for more than R700 per half bottle, but that’s also as it should be: it’s difficult, risky and expensive to make, requiring four times more grapes than a dry wine to produce the same volume.
Boekenhoutskloof launched in 1996 with seven partners (hence the seven Cape Dutch chairs on the now iconic label). Kent, pretty much fresh from the Elsenburg Agricultural College, was the winemaker in residence. His competence and unerring flair for marketing, and the commercial savvy of the late Tim Rands, turned what might otherwise have been a small, scenic Franschhoek farm into a huge, sprawling wine empire. Over the years Kent drove the acquisition of several properties and the creation of a multitiered brand pyramid. He also purchased a big chunk of equity along the way. The business now comprises Boekenhoutskloof, Porseleinberg, The Chocolate Block, Porcupine Ridge, The Wolftrap, Cap Maritime (in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley) and Goldmine (the newly launched partner white blend to Chocolate Block).
Three decades ago Boekenhoutskloof launched on a mere 6,000 bottles of wine. Now the combined annual volumes of all the brands exceeds 6-million bottles. Boekenhoutskloof has remained small: the cellar is a winemaking Rolls-Royce.
Its concrete fermenting tanks are identical to those used by one of the most famous Right Bank Bordeaux estates. With 94 Stockinger foudres in its cellars, it probably has the greatest density of these large, hard-crafted Austrian wine vats of any winery anywhere in the world. Up to 900 smaller barrels are cradled in Oxoline racks — a microcosm of the 4,000-plus barrels held in the same system at The Chocolate Block’s Helderberg winery. There are no shortcuts — the best systems, the best-paid staff (down to vineyard workers and cellar hands). Kent’s view is that you shouldn’t attempt to make great ultrapremium wine at the expense of human misery.
Despite the breadth and depth of the range, most wines are must-buys: from Boekenhoutskloof the 2023 semillon (and keep it for 10 years — if you can), the syrah and the Noble Late Harvest. The newly released Goldmine 2024, just starting to emerge from its cocoon, is comfortably worth its R300, as is its companion Chocolate Block. Then there’s Porseleinberg (syrah), the Cap Maritime Hemel-en-Aarde Pinot 2024, the great-value red and white Wolftrap blends, the Porcupine Ridge (New Zealand) South Island Sauvignon Blanc 2025 (at R180 it’s a steal) and the Porcupine Ridge Swartland Syrah (R85). I don’t love the cabernets, though I think they are finely crafted. Unlike the other Boekenhoutskloof wines, they’re not quite deft enough. Kent is the Steve Jobs of Cape wine; the cabs are a bit Samsung.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.