Petit Verdot

An Inside Look at Some of Meerlust Estate’s New 2025 Red and White Component Wines…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

Wim Truter is the current Cellar Master and Head Winemaker at the historic Meerlust Estate in Stellenbosch, South Africa, taking over from Chris Williams in 2020. He oversees the production of their renowned wines, including the famous Rubicon Bordeaux blend, working alongside winemaker Altus Treurnicht and long time owner Hannes Myburgh.

The iconic Meerlust Estate Rubicon Cape Bordeaux Blend.

So when Wim Truter and Deidre Taylor, the Meerlust head of sales and marketing, landed in London for a flying visit enroute to the Prowein trade fair in Germany, we caught up over lunch to taste two exciting new component wines – a Chardonnay 2025 and a pure Petit Verdot 2025 – as well as taking another look at the delicious new Rubicon 2023. 

Wim has brought an exciting new level of precision, focus and renewal to all the wines in the Meerlust range, preparing this iconic Stellenbosch estate for a new era of global fine wine fame.

Meerlust Estate Chardonnay RT13 2025, 12.5% Abv. (Bottled component)

This vineyard Chardonnay component is planted alongside the Meerlust driveway next to the cemetery and is grown on rocky Greywacke and Shale soils. Fermented in concrete tanks and aged on its fine lees for 8 months with no malo, this wine is deliciously cool, crisp and crystalline, showing white blossoms, yellow citrus, crunchy pears and a hint of honeydew melon. But it’s on the palate you experience its zippy freshness, wound spring tension with a tangy yellow citrus fruit showing impressive glycerol weight and superb intensity and precision on the finish. Now bottled as a 10% portion of the 2025 Meerlust Estate Chardonnay blend.

(Wine Safari Score: 94-95/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Meerlust Estate Petit Verdot 2025 (Bottled component)

One small concrete fermenter, basket pressed into 100% new Quintessence barrels, drawn off at 10 months, to make up around 4% of the Rubicon blend. Majestically rich and creamy, packed full of blue and purple fruits with a brûléed savoury plum compote component. Plush, cool and textural, the full dense palate shows incredible balance and harmony but never loses its bright, delicately tart underlying acid frame. Such perfect ripeness and balance, this could have been bottled on its own. Now there’s an idea for the Meerlust range! 

(Wine Safari Score: 94-96/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Cellar Master Wim Truter and Deidre Taylor.

It should be noted that 2025 was an exceptional red and white wine vintage in South Africa, so collectors should start drinking up back vintage bottles to make space in their cellars – there are going to be a wealth of “must have” releases coming soon! 

The ribeye steaks we ate for lunch at top South African restaurant Kudu, were perfectly matched with a superb bottle of new release Meerlust Rubicon 2023 that is mellowing beautifully in bottle. This is, once again, the complete package – deep, textured and concentrated yet effortlessly balanced, finishing with a picante brûléed brown toast complexity. A class act that is sure to be one of the standout Cape Bordeaux blends of the vintage earning a worthy 96+/100 GSMW score. A big thank you to Wim and Deidre for sharing these delicious Meerlust treats.

The Meerlust Wines are distributed in the UK by Maison Marques et Domaines (MMD).

Thelema Mountain Vineyards Release Their Finest Premium Red Wine Yet – Tasting the Rabelais Cape Bordeaux Blend 2021…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

The Thelema Rabelais red blend originally started out as the prestigious Thelema Cape Winemakers Guild blend before evolving into the Rabelais label with the 2007 vintage, being produced originally from only Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. From 2009, Petit Verdot started to replace the Merlot portion and now the blend appears fairly settled at approximately a 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Petit Verdot mix. The Rabelais represents the very best Bordeaux components from the Thelema range where the wines clearly show concentration, polished ripe tannins and undeniable refinement.

The 2021 vintage in the Cape was, by most accounts, extremely good. The growing season began with a cooler than average winter, which saw some heavy rains, which helped restore some of the water tables ravaged by the severe drought between 2015 and 2019. The cool weather continued into the spring, delaying budburst, while the rains raised the risk of rot and disease. Frost also struck surprisingly several times, damaging new vine growth, however, the vines were able to bounce back reasonably well and flowering was largely a success. Summer was benign, albeit cooler than normal, and grapes were slow to reach phenolic ripeness – although their aromatics and acidity were perfectly preserved – and the harvest was delayed beneficially by several weeks. Despite the delay, good conditions prevailed, and the harvest was a massive success. Some even suggest that this is the best vintage in the Cape in the past two decades.

Thelema Rabelais Red Blend 2021, WO Stellenbosch, 14% Abv.

Another tantalisingly seductive 2021 vintage wine meets you in the form of the Rabelais 2021. Now generally regarded as one of the top Cape Bordeaux Blends produced in the Western Cape, this new vintage made from 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Petit Verdot typifies the cool, taut, linear tension and weightless purity of the vintage. But as elegant and sleek as it is, it is not simply a 2017 lookalike, showing an equal or greater fruit concentration, ripe intense resolved tannins that are assertive but incredibly fine grained, and a piecing crystalline freshness. The aromatics burst with black cherry, tart saline cassis, damson plum, sweet rose petals, earthy balsamic and pickled walnut nuances, with subtle earthy bruleed charcoal hints, stewed blueberries and a deliciously solid core of black berry fruits. This is an incredibly impressive, structured, fine wine of note that imbues class, pedigree and sublime balance to the entire Cape Bordeaux Blend category. In my reconning, this is the very best Rabelais produced to date. Drink now and over the next 20+ years.

(Wine Safari Score: 97+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Thelema Mountain Vineyards Continue Their Great Run of Form with An Invigorating Rabelais Cape Bordeaux Blend 2020…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

The Cape Bordeaux red blend category is one of South Africa’s strongest aces in its vinous deck of cards and in recent years has been responsible for earning the broader South African fine wine category a lot of new international fine wine followers. Few regions outside of Bordeaux and California can conjure up the blended red wine magic of a Cabernet Sauvignon based blend – But South Africa is definitely part of this exclusive club!

While Thelema has been making excellent age worthy Cabernet Sauvignon since the mid 1990s, it was only really from around the 2013 or 2014 vintage that their Rabelais red blend hit a new quality zenith to join the likes of MR de Compostella, Kanonkop Paul Sauer, Stark Conde Oude Nektar and Meerlust Rubicon as one of South Africa’s best performing red blends annually.

With Thomas Webb from Thelema in London recently for the first London based tasting organised by Wines of South Africa since 2019, it was the ideal moment to catch up over a glass or two and post my final review of the current Thelema wine releases.

Thelema Mountain Vineyards Rabelais 2020, WO Stellenbosch, 14.5% Abv.

2.0g/l RS | 6.5g/l TA | 3.50 pH

The 2020 Rabelais is another impressive Cape Bordeaux blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Petit Verdot. This is a striking wine with wafting aromatics of dried violets, iodine, graphite, kelp and sea breeze salinity and underlying notes of crème de cassis, red berries, dried mint leaf, milk chocolate, fresh pencil shavings and savoury tilled earth nuances. On the palate there is the most incredible briney salinity that resonates across the palate, combining with a fresh lemony acidity to invigorate layers of tart black cherry, red currants and pithy black berries supported by silky soft powdery tannins and an ample mid-palate weight of fruit extract. This is a very classy and dynamic wine that already shows impressive integration for a young wine but also a delightful harmony and core of fruit. It has all the attractive plushness with a gentle seductive power that many of the very best examples of the 2020 vintage exhibit and will undoubtedly feature as one of the top Cape Bordeaux blends of the vintage. Drink now and over the next 15+ years.

(Wine Safari Score: 95/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

The wines are distributed to trade in the UK by Enotria Wines and retail for circa £50 per bottle.

Stark Conde Release Another Impressive Single Vineyard Oude Nektar 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

Produced from one of the most spectacular single vineyards in the Cape winelands, I was fortunate enough to visit this special site in March 2023 just as winemaker Rudger van Wyk was preparing the Oude Nektar 2019 for release in the local South African market. I am of course a big fan of the Oude Nektar 2015 and 2017, and now in its sixth vintage post replanting after the vineyard was destroyed by fire in 2009, the 2019 is beginning to show the true potential of this high-altitude Jonkershoek Valley vineyard. Having tasted the phenomenal 2017 again recently, this 2019 is certainly a vintage that will rival the great 2017 bottling which is starting to close down for a few years of slumber.

The 2019 is an expressive blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Petit Verdot (a small barrel selection of non-Oude Nektar estate grown Petit Verdot was blended into the wine) from clones 169 and 23, planted on 101-14 rootstock, yielding 5.5 tons of fruit per hectare.

Rudger van Wyk with the Oude Nektar vineyard behind his right shoulder.

Based around the highest elevation vineyard on the estate, which at 550m is arguably one of Stellenbosch’s highest Cabernet vineyards, the Oude Nektar site has very stoney decomposed granitic soils, and an ideal aspect toward the afternoon sun. Although this vineyard gets a cooling breeze, it averages 45 minutes more sunlight each day which allows for a slower ripening period. This 2019 blend was matured for 20 months in French oak barrels (70% new) before being bottled with no fining and no filtration.

Stark Conde Oude Nektar Cabernet Sauvignon 2019, WO Jonkershoek Valley, 13.5% Abv.

There is no doubting that the Oude Nektar 2015 and 2017 were soaring creations of note. But when you taste the 2019 block buster from Rudger van Wyk, you realise that this is yet another epic wine where the vintage and vineyard held hands to give the winemaker something really very special to work with. The aromatics are classical and beautifully straight laced with notes of rose petals, violets, pencil shavings, grilled herbs, black berries and raspberries bursting to the fore before hints of smoky fireplace embers, sweet tobacco leaf, iodine and graphite nuances. An intense full-bodied palate is simultaneously lithe and light on its feet with a striking elegance and a vibrant core of earthy black currant and black cherry fruits embraced by silky soft powdery tannins. An impressively regal Cabernet Sauvignon with a sensual core of fruit, bright integrated acids and a supple, harmonious saline finish. A beautiful wine with class written all over it. Drink from 2025 to 2045+. (Only 3,275 bottles produced.)

(Wine Safari Score: 97+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

The Stark Conde wines are exclusively imported into the UK by Museum Wines. The Oude Nektar 2019 is available on limited allocation by special request. Contact Daniel@museumwines.co.uk for further information. Retail price is circa £60pb.

Klein Constantia’s Stellenbosch Winery Anwilka Releases Its 2018 Red Blend…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ 2 Comments

The Anwilka Winery owned by Klein Contantia Estate, is based at the southern end of Stellenbosch with close proximity to the False Bay and is planted with 40 hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Petit Verdot. Its proximity to the sea provides a specific maritime microclimate that, together with the old ferricrete soils, are perfectly suited for producing rich, opulent wines with freshness, salinity and balance.

Under the guidance of internationally renowned Bordeaux wine personalities Hubert de Boüard (co-owner of Château Angélus in Saint-Emilion) and Bruno Prats (former owner of Château Cos d’Estournel in Saint-Estèphe), Anwilka has established a worldwide reputation for its flagship red blend which has in years gone by been famously described by international wine critic Robert Parker Jr. as “…the finest red wine I have ever had from South Africa”.

With Klein Constantia group winemaker Matt Day recently taking over full winemaking responsibilities at Anwilka, you can certainly expect to see the true latent potential of this well positioned estate realised in the coming years.

Anwilka 2018, WO Stellenbosch, 14.36% Abv.

3.4 g/l RS | 5.0 g/l TA | 3.70 pH

A blend of 63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Syrah and 5% Petit Verdot which was aged for 19 months in French oak, 50% new 400 litre barrels and 50% second fill. The colour is a deep, dark, opaque black plum with a black cherry rim. The aromatics are fresh and perfumed with notes of mocha, black cherry, bramble berries, melted tar and kelp emerging on the nose. The palate too shows archetypal 2018 vintage character with nuances of poached black plums, sun dried black cherries, melted black liquorice, saline cassis and hints of cedar spice. The textural frame is slightly more foursquare with glassy crisp acids and grippy mineral tannins padded out by an ample, inky black fruit concentration. While not quite as silky, seamless and effortless as the distinguished 2017, this is nevertheless an impressive red blend that should reward 8 to 10+ years of cellaring, being kept fresh and vital by its crunchy, mouth-watering acidity.

(Wine Safari Score: 94/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Starting 2022 In Style – Reviewing the Sensational New Thelema Estate Rabelais 2019…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

The Thelema Rabelais red blend originally started out as the prestigious Thelema Cape Winemakers Guild blend before evolving into the Rabelais label with the 2007 vintage, being produced originally from only Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. From 2009, Petit Verdot started to replace the Merlot portion and now the blend appears fairly settled at approximately a 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Petit Verdot mix. The Rabelais represents the very best Bordeaux components from the Thelema range where the wines clearly show concentration, polished ripe tannins and undeniable refinement.

As with so many Cape Bordeaux Blends of this quality, the Rabelais cuvee has now earned itself an impressive following, both at home and globally, making the wine increasingly sought after and necessitating tighter and tighter allocations at the estate. If you missed the impressive 2015 or the eye wateringly great 2017, it’s time to track down some of the delicious 2019.

Thelema Mountain Vineyards Rabelais 2019, WO Stellenbosch, 13.5% Abv.

The 2019 Thelema Rabelais is another incredibly refined creation being a blend of 90% Simonsberg Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Petit Verdot. Since the 2015 vintage, this flagship wine has shifted into a sixth gear and is now hitting some exceptionally high quality notes. Always classical and composed, the aromatics boast notes of perfumed violets, dried herbs, black cherry and seductive hints of crème de cassis with undertones of sweet cedar wood spice, brûléed coffee beans, brown toast and some dusty mineral strands of crushed slate and graphite. The palate is silky soft, predictably sleek and polished and displays impressive textural elegance with fine filigree tannins, fresh acids, subtle complex layers of black currant, cherry cola, capsicum and breakfast espresso. This is another head-turning, eye-opening wine that displays wonderful balance and harmony. Fabulously pure, precise and regal on so many levels. Simply outstanding. Drink from 2024 to 2040+.

(Wine Safari Score: 97+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Thelema Mountain Vineyards Releases Their New Rabelais 2018 Icon Cape Bordeaux Blend…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

The Thelema Rabelais red blend originally started out as the prestigious Thelema Cape Winemakers Guild blend before evolving into the Rabelais label with the 2007 vintage, being produced originally from only Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. From 2009, Petit Verdot started to replace the Merlot portion and now the blend appears fairly settled at approximately a 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Petit Verdot mix. The Rabelais represents the very best Bordeaux components from the Thelema range where the wines clearly show concentration, polished ripe tannins and obvious refinement.

The last in a trilogy of drought vintages, the 2018 harvest produced fruit of sufficient quality for Thelema to produce their iconic Rabelais blend again. This year, the Cabernet Sauvignon portion comes in at 85% with the remaining 15% devoted to Petit Verdot yet again. After fermentation, the wine was left for 12 hours on the skins before pressing and racking into 100% new 225 litre French oak barrels for malolactic fermentation and further ageing for 20 months.

Thelema Rabelais 2018, WO Stellenbosch, 13.32% Abv.

RS 1.8 g/l | pH 3.46 | TA 5.9

Quite an individual wine, this 2018 Rabelais is beautifully characterful and expressive with vivid notes of sour black plum compote, saline black currant, kelp and oyster shell, unsmoked cigars and freshly cracked black pepper all tightly smothered beneath an aromatic iron curtain of graphite and cedar spice. The palate shows an impressively polished texture with sleek marble like tannins… firm but super tight knit and precise, a medium bodied harmonious weight of red and black berry fruits and an incredibly long, saline, rock salt finish. Plenty of attractive wet river pebble minerality combines with graphite, lead pencil and complexing brûléed wood spice nuances to offer all the ‘salt & pepper’ complexity that should evolve in bottle to one day make this a truly classy, complex Cape Bordeaux blend. Crack the odd bottle after 5+ years but keep the rest for at least 10+. A fabulous 2018 blend that speaks of the vintage.

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

Recent praise from UK wine critic Matthew Jukes, after tasting the 2017 release.

The Meerlust Estate Prepares For Another Momentous New Release – Tasting the Meerlust Rubicon 2017 Red Blend…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ 3 Comments

The 2017 release of the Meerlust Rubicon represents another classical expression of this fabulous Cape Icon wine. The high critical praise heaped upon the 2015 vintage helped it to become the fastest selling Rubicon release on record. Indeed, one cannot even begin to imagine a South African fine wine landscape that does not feature this wine prominently. Great expectations are placed on every new release and year after year, this Cape heritage estate delivers.

The 2017 vintage was surprising in that from the very beginning, the estate felt that the wines were very similar to the excellent 2015 reds. A cold winter in 2016 followed by a warm spring ensured early and even bud break. Although comparatively dry, as the Cape was still experiencing a drought, the 2017 crop was greatly enhanced by the estate’s ability to irrigate strategically, ensuring steady ripening and eventual phenolic ripeness across all varieties.

Tasting at Meerlust in March 2018 with Hannes Myburgh, Chris Williams and viticulturalist Roelie Joubert who sadly passed away in April 2020 from a sudden heart attack.

The 2017 is again a Cabernet Sauvignon dominated four grape blend with each of the varieties fermented separately before being aged in 300 litre French Nevers oak barrels, 60% new and 40% second fill. After 8 months in barrel, the components were blended and given another 10 months in barrel for harmonization before bottling. I first tasted this wine in its component parts back in March 2018 with the then winemaker, Chris Williams. I knew instantly that we were in for another exceptional release of Rubicon. Then in January 2020, I met up with owner Hannes Myburgh in London and got my first taste of the Meerlust Red 2017, the second wine made up of components not used in the Rubicon blend. I was bowled over by the beauty of this wine and while it is only really sold in export markets, it served to raise my quality expectations for the Rubicon 2017 even higher.

In November 2019, winemaker Wim Truter joined Meerlust, taking over from Chris Williams to become only the third winemaker to take the reins at this historic estate. Chris finally followed his calling and agonisingly decided to move on to the next chapter of his winemaking career, to pursue his own Foundry wine project full time.

The old Meerlust farmstead with some of Hannes’s beloved dogs.

Meerlust Estate Rubicon 2017, WO Stellenbosch, 13.6% Abv.

The 2017 Rubicon is a classical blend of 49% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot, each vinified separately before undergoing malolactic fermentation in 300 litre French Nevers oak barrels, 60% new and 40% second fill. Deep purple-black in colour, the intensity and gravitas of this vintage is highlighted by the tight, dense, dark broody aromatics that require more than a little coaxing out the glass before revealing a very focused, slightly introverted bouquet of complex, tightly interwoven notes of violets, black currant preserve, black plum, Black Forest gateaux and hoisin sauce with backing notes of dried fennel, salty black liquorice, spicy cedar and an exotic Asian 5 spice nuance. While 2017 certainly stands out as another classical year of exceptional quality, the vintage will surely be remembered for its stand-out elegance, seamless palate textures and its signature weightless intensity and concentration. This Rubicon does of course possess plenty of stuffing and dazzles with gentle waves of blackberry crumble, crème de cassis, macerated black cherries, freshly tilled earth, unsmoked cigars and a finely textured, powdery tannin frame that dries the palate on the finish and reminds the drinker that this wine, however enjoyable in its youth, is also built for extended ageing. This really is another exquisite vintage with charm and poise, Grand Vin potency and an overt, unbridled determination to deliver long-term drinking pleasure. Drink from 2022 to 2040+

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

Thelema Rabelais 2017 – Tasting and Assessing One of the Best Cape Icon Bordeaux Blends…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ 8 Comments

The Thelema Rabelais is a blend of the best Bordeaux varietal components from Thelema’s estate vineyards in Stellenbosch. The 2014 was suitably impressive in quality and was lauded as one of the best Bordeaux blends of the vintage on the South African market. But of course the epic 2015 vintage was a game changer, shifting to 6th gear in terms of quality, purity, balance and intensity.

The 2017 vintage was again a selection of the very best barrels identified and earmarked after harvest. The Cabernet Sauvignon vines were planted in 2002 on decomposed granite Hutton soils at a density of 2000 vines per hectare. The Petit Verdot vines were planted shortly afterwards in 2003.

The grapes were de-stalked, hand sorted, crushed and then fermented in stainless steel after a two day cold soak. After fermentation, the wine was left on its skins for two more days before pressing and then racked into 100% new French 225 litre oak barrels for 20 months of ageing.

(RS 2.0 g/l , pH 3.39, TA 6.2 g/l. 14 Abv.)

Thelema Rabelais 2017, WO Stellenbosch, 14 Abv.

The 2017 Thelema Rabelais Bordeaux blend sticks to its more recent successful recipe of 87% Cabernet Sauvignon with just a 13% splash of Petit Verdot to add extra interest. A fabulously deep garnet-purple colour, this expertly constructed work of vinous art slowly unfurls in the glass revealing complex notes of crushed black currants, earthy black plum, warm black berry crumble, sweet clove and cedar spice. There are also some distinctive dusty Cabernet Sauvignon aromas that mix harmoniously with notes of half-smoked cigars together with charged perfumed tones of violets, graphite and sweet black chai tea. Medium bodied and supremely tight knit and focused, there is a piercingly arctic fresh line of acidity that cuts through the plush textured fruit concentration like a surgeon’s scalpel through water paper. The intensity is awesome and the all round richness and opulence held tightly in check by the acids but also the super weightless, fine-grained polished marble tannins. The 2015 Rabelais was such an astonishingly great wine that it takes a modicum of courage to even suggest that this 2017 expression is every bit its equal and may well be superior. This great wine truly encapsulates the essence of where South African fine wine has come from but also where it is today. A wine that will give endless pleasure from release but has all the requisite building blocks to age gracefully for 20+ years. An exceptional must have Cape icon red. 

(Wine Safari Score: 97+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

A Vintage of Elegant Intensity and Quality Elevates Vilafonte Series C 2017 To Must Have Vintage Status…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ 3 Comments

While I received a sample of the 2017 Series C to taste a number of weeks ago, I had already heard rumours via the grape vine that the Vilafonte Series C 2016 had won the best red blend at the Six Nations Trophy competition. But of course I knew the incredible quality Vilafonte had achieved with their Series C 2016, having reviewed it way back in October 2018, would be an incredibly hard act to follow. Such was the quality focus at this precision viticulture winery that even the second wine, Seriously Old Dirt 2016 has become something of a collectable commodity in Europe of late.

 

But after the incredibly dry and hot 2016, the 2017 harvest presented an abundant crop of sterling quality. Yields rose by fifty-seven percent, despite the fourth year in a sequence of below-average rainfall for the Western Cape Province. This follows Vilafonte’s smallest per-hectare crop (2016) and moves back to long-term average yields. Welcome post-harvest rains in the preceding year before leaf fall, coupled with well-timed nutrient applications, allowed the vines to build up reserves before going into winter dormancy.

Winter rains in 2016 approached normal levels, but fell below average in late winter to spring. Bud-break in the spring was very even, with rapid shoot growth which ceased well before bloom, allowing excellent fruit-set. Weather leading up to harvest was warm and fair – perfect ripening conditions according to owner Mike Ratcliffe. Harvest commenced on the 6th of February with a few short pauses, and concluded on the 1st of March2017.

 

Mike Ratcliffe states that “at time of blending, varietal components were very expressive, showing a classical elegance rather than an intensity and power”. Aged for 22 months in 70% new French oak barrique, with the balance in older French oak barriques, the Series C 2017 consists of Cabernet Sauvignon (57%), Merlot (21%), Cabernet Franc (13%) and Malbec (9%) with a total of 46 barrels being produced.

 

Vilafonte Series C 2017, WO Paarl, 14.5 Abv.

After the drought of 2016, all producers can honestly admit to being amazed by the quality both the white and red wines realised in 2017. But for Vilafonte, the pressure would have been incrementally higher after defying the vintage odds in 2016 to produced arguably the finest South African red blend of the vintage with their Series C 2016. But great vintages are all about taking the opportunities nature presents and Vilafonte seems to have been equally ready to make the most of this exceptional vintage. The Series C 2017 certainly displays an incredibly deep, dark broody garnet-purple colour with imposing extract and concentration. On the nose, this youthful release is a little closed to begin with but opens up in the glass offering alluring notes of incense, sweet vanilla pod, caramelised cashew nuts, black berry reduction, juniper berry and dusty, graphite tinged black chocolate exoticism. The palate is velvety and supple with a most generous, multi-layered mouthfeel of blueberry, black cherries, saline cassis and a charcoal tinged buttered brown toasty finish. Where the 2015 release showed a more masculine power, the 2017 is the personification of intensity with elegance, finesse and grace. A producer can wait decades to realise a vintage like this that possesses this degree of poise, intensity and weightless concentration combined with a decadently fruited complexity and composure. A spellbinding new release from Vilafonte. Indulge yourself by drinking a few bottles in its youth, however the 2017 is certainly worthy of over a decade or more of cellaring to realise its full potential.

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