Thorne & Daughters, 'Cat's Cradle' Chenin Blanc 2020

Thorne & Daughters is widely acknowledged to be one of the forerunners of the ‘New Wave’ wine movements in South Africa. Since 2013, John and Tasha Thorne-Seccombe have been producing innovative wines sourced from selected growers right across the Western Cape. In the early 2000’s, winemaking took the couple around the world, and they spent a few years in the UK, where John studied viticulture.

Back in South Africa, a happy encounter with two similar trailblazing young winemakers, Chris Alheit and Peter-Allan Finlayson, helped to lay the foundations for the first vintage of Thorne & Daughters. John and Tasha shared a small cellar with Chris and Peter-Allan, until they later moved to rented cellar space at Gabriëlskloof, where the wines are made today.

Thorne & Daughters is mainly focused on producing Cape white blends, from grapes sourced from 15 different growers in Bot River, Stellenbosch, Voor Paardeberg, Swartland, Citrusdal, Franschhoek and Overberg.

John and Tasha did not want to be limited geographically, so the net was cast wide and has been driven by “a happy synergy of people, place, soil and vines”. As John puts it, he aims to look for vineyards which combine these four elements and then tries to do the vineyard justice in the cellar. Each relationship is unique but, where possible, they apply the ‘lutte raisonnée’ approach to farming, working closely with growers to help eradicate the use of chemical herbicides and fungicides, and to build “thriving” soil health.

For more information on Thorne & Daughters and their wines, visit their website.