Angus Paul is quickly becoming one of the most exciting names in South African wine. Recently a contender for Rising Star of the Year, Paul made a striking mark with his 2024 release and is hailed by Tim Atkin as ‘a young winemaker with a stellar future’.
Driven by a vision to ‘build Stellenbosch from a different angle’, Angus is championing South Africa’s heritage grapes – Chenin Blanc, Pinotage, and Cinsault – crafting wines that honour both place and tradition.
These are the bottles you’ll want to discover now, before the rest of the world catches on.😉
His trio of Chenins is distinctive of three stellar Stellenbosch sites, each offering its own clarity, concentration, and energy. The first, Fantamtango Chenin Blanc 2024 – scoring 95 points – is his best wine yet, according to Atkin. From the Upper Blaauwklippen, these vines were planted in the 1980s close to the river. It leaves a vivid impression with notes of ‘beeswax, pear, yellow apple, racy acidity’ (Atkin).
From the white silica soils of the Polkadraai Hills (Karibib), A Flight of Furious Fancies Chenin Blanc 2024 is electric – wild and savoury, layered with green apple, lime, and a crackling intensity!
Completing the trio, Barbary Fictions Chenin Blanc 2024, from the granite driven soils of Bottelary Hills, delivers masterfully handled weight and texture, while gleaming with pear and lemon zest brightness.
A serious vineyard demands a serious wine – and the Diapsalmata Cinsault 2024 delivers just that. Planted in 1966 in Firgrove, facing False Bay, this site is regarded by winemakers as one of the Cape’s unsung terroir heroes. The result is a spicy, fragrant Cinsault brimming with flavours of dark cherries, charcuterie, and tobacco leaf.
Who isn’t getting excited about Pinotage these days? Paul’s ‘project wine’, Transient Lands Pinotage 2024, is a thrilling example of the new wave that we are loving. Sourced from the Swartland and Stellenbosch, it bursts with brightness, supple raspberry and red cherry fruit atop wild herbs and rose petals.
While Angus Paul is just getting started, we cannot wait to see what the future has in store for this talented young winemaker!
Please send your request to margeaux@winecellar.co.za
Tasting Notes:
‘Fantamtango is the best wine yet from Angus Paul, a young winemaker with a stellar future. Made with grapes from Keermont in Stellenbosch, it’s a rich, layered, beautifully judged Chenin Blanc with layers of beeswax, oatmeal, pear and yellow apple, racy acidity and a petrichor top note. 2026-32.’ – Tim Atkin, 95/100
A Flight of Furious Fancies Chenin Blanc 2024
‘On A Flight of Furious Fancies comes from a 1988 parcel on the Karibib farm, planted on white silica, and is a chiselled expression of the variety that needed its full malolactic fermentation. Wild, savoury and nicely unkempt, it has layers of wax, lime and green apple and lots of focus and mid-palate concentration. 2026-31.’ – Tim Atkin, 94/100
Barbary Fictions Chenin Blanc 2024
‘Barbary Fictions is one of three Chenin Blancs in Angus Paul’s range, sourced from the Mooiplaas Estate in the Bottelary Hills. Fermented and aged in older barrels, it has appealing weight and texture, baking spice and honeysuckle top notes and a palate of lanolin, pear and lemon zest. The granite soils add a tangy, stony finish. 2025-30.’ – Tim Atkin, 93/100
‘Diapsalmata is easier to drink and enjoy than it is to pronounce, but that’s better than the other way around. Made with grapes from Firgrove, in sight of False Bay, it’s intensely spicy and aromatic, with deftly handled 100% whole bunch-fermentation, stony minerality, flavours of charcuterie and red berries and tobacco leaf tannins. 2026-31.’ – Tim Atkin, 93/100
‘Part of Pinotage’s increasingly exciting new wave, this combines raw material from the Swartland and the Polkadraai Hills. Lighter and less tannic than in the past, it’s what Angus Paul describes as a “project wine”, with wafts of rose petal and wild herbs, sinewy intensity and supple raspberry and red cherry fruit. 2026-31.’ – Tim Atkin, 93/100
