The flagship of Le Riche Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon is the expression of the very best barrels produced at the Le Riche winery. From vines grown on decomposed granite and duplex gravels in Raithby, Firgrove and Jonkershoek, the quality of the fruit is often of sensational quality.

Rigorous vineyard selection, multiple micro-vinifications, extended skin contact after fermentation and approximately 60% of new oak is used to compliment the pristine fruit balance ensuring the pedigree of this presitige wine.

Reserve status is only endowed if the grapes and resulting wine measures up to exceptional standards. Hand selected grapes from older, lower yielding vines are used. Fermentation is done with a selected yeast strain under controlled temperatures. Manual plunging during this period ensures optimal colour extraction.

After five days the tanks are closed and allowed to macerate for a further period, normally 10-14 days. Pressing follows and the wine is transferred to barrel for the secondary fermentation. On completion a final quality check and analysis is performed and the Reserve is then prepared for barrel ageing.

Le Riche Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2015, Stellenbosch, 14.5 Abv.

It was written in the stars, predicted by Nostradamus and also probably a handful of Stellenbosch fortune tellers, that the Le Riche 2015 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon was going to be a wine of epic proportions. The generosity of this game-changing vintage has produced a really beautiful expression of pure Cabernet Sauvignon. What is most striking about this wine is its incredible purity and perfume that rises out of the glass imperiously in multiple waves of fragrant cherry blossom, violets, potpourri and rose petals. It possesses copious amounts of mocha, sweet tobacco leaf, lead pencil, cedar spice, black currant leaf and a delicious earthy, brambly, forest floor complexity. The palate shows such sophistication and textural seduction, with classical Cabernet flavours filling every corner of the mouth. Beautifully charming, open-knit and plump, this wine reveals the class of a truly great vintage, with a full bodied fleshy weight, a finely delineated purity and the most charming harmonious balance. Drink this wine on release or over the next 25+ years. It’s a true thing of beauty.

(Wine Safari Score: 96/100 Greg Sherwood MW)