Raats Original Chenin Blanc

The guides we follow place Stellenbosch between mountains and the Atlantic side of South Africa's Cape winelands. This bottle is a Chenin Blanc, and our grape research treats Chenin Blanc as a white variety with naturally high acidity, one that turns up as dry, sweet, still or sparkling wine, which is why the label and the origin carry so much weight with it.

Those same regional guides describe Stellenbosch as a registered district in South Africa's Wine of Origin system, within the wider Coastal Region, with warm dry summers, winter rainfall, and ocean air that cools the more exposed sites. They are careful to add that the district is broad, its slopes and valleys differing enough that a named ward or producer is needed for a close reading of place; in the stores we checked in September 2026, the wine ranged from $22.99 to $29.99.

We do not have a shopper rating for this wine. On flavor, an official category guide points to apple, quince, citrus and honeyed notes across Chenin Blanc's range, and notes that its high acidity can keep the wine firm and refreshing even when some sweetness stays, though how this particular bottle tastes is not something we can confirm.

Raats says the winery was founded by Bruwer Raats in 2000, in the Polkadraai area of Stellenbosch.

The producer's current product page lays out the process behind that label: fruit from two different soil types, decomposed granite and sandstone, is fermented separately, the granite contributing lime and mineral character and the sandstone bringing more tropical fruit and structure, before the wine is cold settled for two to three days, fermented cool in stainless steel tanks, and rested on its spent yeast for six months with no time in oak. Bruwer Raats explains the aim in the producer's own words: “What I was after was purity, freshness and lower alcohol levels,” crediting the decomposed dolomite soils of Polkadraai Hills, a district the Raats family helped establish as an official Stellenbosch ward in 2007. The page's tasting notes for the current release describe yellow apple, kiwi and pineapple with green melon and lime, a citrus-driven profile the winery credits to that split-soil, stainless-steel approach; the page reflects the current 2024 vintage, and tasting notes can shift a little from year to year even where the winemaking method stays the same.

Our call: worth reaching for if the producer's own account of place and process is what sells you, a single grape from a named Stellenbosch ward, split-soil fermentation explained in plain terms, and a stated no-oak style built for freshness. Pass if shopper feedback is what you weigh first; no rating has reached our record yet, so the producer's word is standing alone here.

The Grocery Store Wine Desk · written Sep 16, 2026 from our research file for this wine. Numbers reflect our latest checks.