Predictably, the Le Riche Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon often occupies the majority of wine critics’ column inches, garnering high 90+ point scores on a seemingly regular basis… and not just from local critics either. Both the 2020 and 2021 releases have picked up scores from 97 to 99/100 points from UK as well as respected American critics. So, of course it gives me even more pleasure to review the “other” Cabernet Sauvignon produced by this iconic Stellenbosch producer.
The fruit for this “regular” Le Riche Cabernet Sauvignon was sourced from selected vineyard sites within Stellenbosch, with a conscientious mixture of cool gravelly slopes facing the cooling False Bay and rich red granitic soils located around Stellenbosch to ensure a harmonious and accessible balance of aromas and flavours in the final wine.
Le Riche Cabernet Sauvignon 2022, WO Stellenbosch, 14.23% Abv.
2.1g/l RS| 5.9g/l TA | 3.77pH
The 2022 Le Riche Cabernet Sauvignon is an attractive and sumptuous pure Cabernet Sauvignon expression brimming with perfumed fresh violets and rose petals, grilled herbs, black cherry compote, black tea and creme de cassis. There is a real fleshy tenderness to the wine that shows a deliciously accessible Cabernet fruit typicity, laced with cherry tobacco, mulberries and Black Forest gateau nuances. Medium bodied with a harmonious integrated freshness and a mouth watering salinity following to an expansive finish with majestically subtle sweet mineral tannins, this wine has everything you could possibly want from an affordable, pure fruited Stellenbosch Cabernet. Drink this beauty on release and over the next 8-10+ years.
(Wine Safari Score: 94/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Le Riche Cabernet Sauvignon 2021, WO Stellenbosch, 14.39% Abv.
1.6g/l RS| 5.4g/l TA | 3.70pH
This quintessential classically styled Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 exhibits attractive aromatics of shaved lead-pencil infused with black berries, black cherry, moist tobacco, iodine and precocious fragrant notes of violets and white spring flowers over graphite and a granitic minerality. The palate is medium bodied with incredibly fine-grained tensile tannins and delectable mouthwatering acids that really bring this wine to life. After a few hours of breathing, the wine unfurls to reveal an incredibly well integrated oak profile, restrained enough to let the inky, saline crème de cassis and black cherry fruits really shine in the glass. There is an effortless sense of power, mid-palate tension and textural precision but also a delicacy and purity. Such a wonderfully fresh, vibrant, elegant expression of Cabernet Sauvignon that celebrates the charm and purity of a cooler, slower ripening vintage like 2021. A stylish classical red wine that will continue to reward the drinker for at least 10 to 15+ years after vintage. A truly affordable luxury fine wine.
(Wine Safari Score: 95+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
The Le Riche wines are imported into the UK by Boutinot Wines and are available retail from specialist South African merchants like Museum Wines for around £22-£24 per bottle.