Wine of the Week 61: Silverthorn River Dragon NV

If the sky could dream, would it dream of dragons? John Loubser seems to think so. He’s the sort of winemaker who walks around with rocks in his pockets, fossils gathered from his Robertson farm, relics from when the valley was an ocean. Most of them bear the imprint of fins.

The region’s past as an ancient seabed is significant as to why it’s the only one in South Africa with substantial limestone deposits, much like Champagne, making it the country’s natural home for sparkling wine. And as luck would have it, it also happened to be the location of the Loubser family farm. John is a cap classique specialist and has spent his career putting bubbles in the bottle. The farm is now home to Silverthorn, the boutique cap classique label he launched in 2004 while still working his day job at Steenberg.

From an ancient land

A keen palaeophile, John admits he was disappointed not to find any giant lizard fossils. The reason? The soils in Robertson are around 400 million years old, which means they pre-date dinosaurs entirely.

“If we can’t have dinosaurs, we can have dragons,” he says. And so River Dragon was born: an unusual bubbly made from an old-vine colombar block planted in 1983.

“Dragons may belong to magic, but their origins lie in our fascination with nature,” John says. The label features Draco Africanus, the African dragon once said to write across the sky in trails of smoke.

Old-vine colombar

A natural crossing of chenin and gouais blanc, colombar has been planted in South Africa since the 1700s. It’s just behind chenin in vineyard area, making it the country’s second most planted variety, and South Africa grows more of both than anywhere else in the world. Known as the “cognac grape,” colombar originated in the Borderies region of France. When the Dutch still controlled the area, the local spirit was called brandewijn, or “burnt wine”, a term that travelled to the Cape along with the grape itself. In Afrikaans it became brandewyn.

“Colombar makes great base wine,” explains John on what inspired him to use it. The high natural acidity, he says, lends itself perfectly to bubbles.

Silverthorn River Dragon NV

Currently one of only two cap classiques made with colombar. River Dragon is wild-fermented, 40% in acacia barrels, and aged for 19 months before release. Fragrant, undressing in white-green layers of apple blossom, peach and pineapple. The finely beaded mousse and electric acidity twist in harmony, like DNA strands intertwining, making something completely new. This vibrant thread pulls long to the finish, gathering flint in its wake to the nectarine-kissed finish.
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