The Thamnus Chardonnay 2024, just released into market, has been highly rated 95 points by Tim Atkin MW in his South Africa Special Report 2026.

It is the fourth vintage of the wine. Atkin rated each of the first three at 95 points – the 2021, the 2022 and the 2023. He has said he seldom rates a maiden vintage that highly, but made an exception for the 2021 and singled it out in that year’s report.

Atkin, a Master of Wine, has published his South Africa report every year since 2013, and it is among the most closely followed assessments of the country’s wine. For the 2026 edition he tasted 1,831 wines from over 350 producers, of which just over 200 wines were rated 95 points or above. The Thamnus Chardonnay has been in that prestigious group every vintage since its maiden release.

The 2024 season was a good one across the Overberg. Winter and spring rain built strong water reserves, and ripening ran long, cool and even. Smaller berries brought more concentration, and the fruit came in clean.

There was no whole-bunch component this year. Nine months in barrel, 34% of it new French oak, all of it blonde toast,  chosen for texture rather than flavour. 13.22% alcohol, 7.4 g/l total acidity, pH 3.23.

“Three vintages rated, none below 95, and now the 2024. That is not luck, and it is not one person,” says PJ Geyer. “It is the same small group walking the same rows every year, and most of that work is never seen by anybody. A rating gives me something solid to hand back to them. That is the part I care about.”

Asked about the winemaking, Geyer keeps coming back to the same point. “We make two wines, so every decision lands in one of them – when to pick, which barrels, how long to leave it alone. The work is reading what the season actually gave us and answering that, rather than something we had in mind in advance. After that the wine says it better than I can.”

The 2024 opens on lime and pear, with jasmine and a little smoke behind it. Dry, fresh and firm enough to keep for years.