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PREMIUM

Ken Forrester: 20 Years of The FMC

A retrospective on the rebirth of South African Chenin Blanc through the lens of its original flagship label, The FMC. Jason Millar tastes through the back catalogue of the wine that paved the way for the new wave.

When Ken Forrester took over the abandoned vineyard of Scholtzenhof in 1993, it was a change of lifestyle for a man who had spent the better part of three decades in hotel management.

Relocating his wife and young family, he renamed the estate Ken Forrester Vineyards and began the work of restoring the property, located to the west of the Helderberg mountain in Stellenbosch.

Among the lands attached to the Cape Dutch homestead were two old Chenin Blanc vineyards, one planted in 1970 and one in 1974, and the work began to rehabilitate them after years of neglect and turn their old vine fruit into wine.

By the time Nelson Mandela was elected in 1994, Chenin Blanc covered over 32,000 hectares of the Cape.

Planted extensively by the national co-operative winery, KWV, it had been the most important white grape for South Africa since the 1950s, mostly grown for distillation into Cape brandy.


Scroll down for tasting notes and scores for a retrospective of The FMC



Looking back at The FMC:


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