The previous Lievland Wine Estate can certainly be counted as one of the grand old Cape brands of the 1980s and 1990s and I can confirm that I certainly drank my fair share of their famous value red blend, the Lievlander, as well as plenty of their Shiraz and their delicious DVB Cape Bordeaux Blend. In 2017, it was announced that MAN Family Wines had acquired the 110 hectare estate with ambitious plans to build a new cellar facility and also slowly replant some of the 60 hectares under vine.
Lying on much respected Simonsberg Stellenbosch terroir, immediate neighbours are Natte Valleij, Warwick, the old Uitkyk, Kanonkop and Le Bonheur. I recently caught up in London with their head winemaker, Riaan Möller, to taste through a current selection of the Lievland Vineyards wines.
Lievland Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc 2022, WO Elgin, 13% Abv.
Deliciously exotic aromatics with peach skins, apricot, gooseberry, melon and green apple pastille. 100% stainless steel fermented with several inoculated yeast strains. From Sandstone soil vineyards, south facing, the grapes yield deliciously cool crystalline fruits boasting white peach, green pear, white pepper, rocket leaf and hints of lychee. Sleek, vibrant and wonderfully energetic with a really youthful vivacity and a delicate tropical kiss on the finish. A delicious cool climate expression.
(Wine Safari Score: 92/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Lievland Vineyards Old Vine Chenin Blanc 2022, WO Paarl, 13% Abv.
Made from a Certified Heritage Vineyard planted between 1977 and 1987 from Agter-Paarl with the use of up to 30% barrel fermented portion. The aromatics show a fruity candied opulence with notes of smoky straw, fynbos, peach rock candy and hints of green pear. The palate is rich and expressive with mouth watering layers of spicy white peach, greengage, green apple and hints of fig preserve on the long, persistent, textured finish.
(Wine Safari Score: 94/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Lievland Vineyards Liefkoos Shiraz / Mourvedre / Cinsault Rose 2023, WO Stellenbosch, 12.5% Abv.
An attractive pale salmon colour, the wine shows bright dusty chalky aromatics packed full of pear drops, crushed granite, crushed red cherry and crunchy wild strawberry fruits. The palate is cool, sleek and very precise with a delicious weightless concentration, lovely purity, mineral pithiness and impressive length. One for the lovers of Provençal Rose.
(Wine Safari Score: 91/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Lievland Vineyards Bush Vine Pinotage 2021, WO Paarl, 13.5% Abv.
From a vineyard on the westerly slopes of Paarl mountain planted in 2000/1 with a small 5% addition of Grenache. Only a small amount of new large oak is used (15%) and mostly multi-passage 225 and 300 litre used barrels. Packed full of vibrancy and freshness with notes of bramble berry, forest fruits, tilled earth, black plum and hints of red apple. Super polished and sleek, the texture is silky, elegant and delicately exotic with lovely purple rock candy, Parma violets and a mouthwatering Fanta Grape-flavoured allure. The finish is bone dry, spicy and mineral with real balance and length. A very individual expression of Pinotage, but undoubtedly delicious.
(Wine Safari Score: 94+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Lievland Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon 2021, WO Cape Coast, 14% Abv.
High altitude fruit from the Helderberg and Agter-Paarl, makes for a very classy Cabernet Sauvignon with a sneaky 5% Cinsault, 4% Petit Verdot and 2% Cabernet Franc blended in. The aromatics show sweet red berry, red plum, red currant, raisined cranberries, cassis, tilled earth and delicate notes of sweet tobacco and tannery leather. On the palate the soft, seductive silky layers dominate, revealing a very fine textured, compact mouthfeel. A very impressive wine with great complexity, lovely granitic minerality and a delicate salinity on the finish.
Fruit from original vineyards on the farm planted 2001. 86% Syrah and 14% Mourvedre with 20% whole bunches, were fermented and aged 100% for 16 months in mostly used neutral 225 litre barrels with a 15% new French oak portion. The aromatics are lush and seductive with blueberry, black cherry, tart plum and subtle hints of dried herbs, cumin and peppercorns. Wonderfully pure, delicate and elegantly fresh, this is a very classy, considered, light touch Syrah made with real attention to detail. The finish is intense and focused with a fine weightless concentration.
(Wine Safari Score: 94+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
The Lievland Vineyard wines are imported into the UK by Berkmann Wines.
There is a cliché in the UK wine trade that if you want to taste the very best Swiss wines, you must travel to Switzerland to find them. Outside of drinking copious amounts of Bordeaux, Burgundy and Italian wines, the local Swiss consumers are known to be very protective of their very best producers and sourcing the more interesting boutique wineries outside of Switzerland can be a massive challenge. So when the opportunity came up for me to join one of my French importers on an exploratory visit recently, I grabbed it with both hands.
Our main port of call was to meet and taste the impressive wines of Alexandre Delétraz. The winemaker and owner- founder of Cave des Amandiers in 2007. In his 40’s, Alexandre is definitely one of the more exciting producers with not only an incredible passion for the old vineyards of the Valais AOC but he also follows a wine philosophy to create some incredibly pure, precise, but characterful wines that show their true sense of place.
In the winery, I noticed a sign “LEARN THE RULES LIKE A PROFESSIONAL, SO YOU CAN BREAK THEM LIKE AN ARTIST ~ PABLO PICASSO.” When you get to know Alexandre a little better and you taste his wines, this statement becomes even more pertinent. It is undoubtedly his desire to create great wines in exceptional terroirs, and to try his best to reveal the qualities of the native Valais grape varieties in an authentic environment, giving the wines time to grow in the cool darkness and calm of his own cellar.
His winery was created in 2008, and after vinifying the first vintage in a mazot, then in a tractor garage in Fully, he found a more suitable location in the town of Saillon. He moved into this new cellar in 2011 and although the winemaking facilities are modern, his working techniques remain essentially artisanal. The Cave des Amandiers vines are maintained manually due to the very complicated topography of the steep hillsides and Alexandre’s 8.2 hectares are made up of many small terraces which range from 450m to 900m in altitude. The climate is extraordinarily favorable for the vines, but in order to always guarantee impeccable quality and optimal maturity of the berries, Alexandre carries out drastic sorting of every harvest. The yields are naturally low and adapted to the vigor of each of the parcels, to ensure a good concentration of aromas, fruit and grape polyphenols.
Vines in Valais are essentially mountain viticulture. Among their Italian neighbours, Alexandre readily speaks of “viticoltura eroica” for vineyards located in this type of exceptionally rugged topography. This “heroic viticulture” is perfectly illustrated by the different entities that the Cave des Amandiers has: dizzying slopes where the vines sometimes cling painfully to the hillsides, numerous small terraces supported by ancient dry-stone walls, with almost non-existent mechanization. It is this slope, these dry-stone walls, in this challenging environment of extraordinary diversity as well as a particular climate in Valais which makes it possible to obtain impeccable balance, freshness and optimal maturity in the grapes. Indeed, during the growing season (from April to October), this climate is typically Mediterranean, and certainly viticulturally far superior to the rest of French-speaking Switzerland.
There are also other more local climatic factors, and in fact one cannot ignore the role played by the ‘Foehn’, a hot wind which dries the grapes during the harvest period, but also at a microclimatic level; the heat generated by the heating of the walls during the day continues to be released beneficially at night. Altitude and exposure also play a very big role, and Alexandre notices the very great heterogeneities from one plot to another, making it possible to cultivate numerous grape varieties with very different characteristics.
Since 2008, the Cave des Amandiers has certainly been a very unique project in the AOC Valais for the creation and rehabilitation of many estate mountain vineyards made up of vertiginous and sometimes abandoned terraces. To bring together different parcels of vines into a single 8-hectare estate, it was necessary to acquire around 200 plots from 70 different owners! Many of these vines have been replanted with massale selections of endemic and traditional grape varieties, drawn from the rich ampelography of the Valais region. Most of these vines are located on the gneisses – granitic soils – in the commune of Fully, a geological exception and a veritable wine gem of Valais.
Wines
There are several native grape variety in the Valais, some that are unique in the wine world. Extreme fragility to winds which often threatens to tear its leaves to shreds and break its branches. But a wine of great class and potential that is still barely touched is the Petite Arvine, produced from terraced vines located in and around Fully. It expresses the freshest and spring-like side of this grape variety and Alexandre works hard to control and channel its vigor, energy and acidity through aging the young wines on their fine lees. There are aromas of lime, wisteria and rhubarb, elderflower and honey, and the palates portray a fresh, lemony vitality and energy with a surprisingly iodized and mineral finish. As it ages, it becomes nuttier and more complex on the nose and palate.
After a day of visiting many of Alexandre’s unique terraced vineyard plots, we returned to the winery to taste his fascinating selection of wines.
White Wines Tasted:
Caves des Amandiers Fendant 2022, AOC Valois (Chasselas)
One of the cellars top selling wines, a bright, crisp, crystalline Chasselas that was unfortunately sold out already at the time of my visit. From all accounts, not a wine to miss!
Caves des Amandiers Heida 2020, AOC Valois
Also known as the Savagnin cultivar, this white is a little richer while retaining wonderful freshness and just a delicate hint of struck flint reduction on the nose.
Caves des Amandiers Heida 2021, AOC Valais
Still fresher and nervier, this 2021 is wonderfully aromatic and vibrant with a lovely linearity and precision.
Caves des Amandiers Les Villages Heida de Fully 2022, AOC Valais
This Village wine is richer and fuller with oak spice, lovely palate depth and a complex, delicately savoury character with a rounder, softer texture and concentration. Beautiful.
Caves des Amandiers Les Villages Ermitage de Saillon 2022, AOC Valais
Made from Marsanne, this beauty offers pear and yellow orchard fruits over a soft textured palate that reveals a pithy minerality and a wonderful saline, yellow citrus finish with lemony acids.
Caves des Amandiers Les Villages Ermitage de Fully 2022, AOC Valais
From a small 1200 metre square plot, this wine boasts a more Rhoney French styling with more intense notes of pear puree, green banana, and a pithy minerality over a stony, taut, broody complex palate.
Caves des Amandiers Les Villages Petite Arvine de Fully 2022, AOC Valais
This delicious 2022 shows pure, bright aromatics of green pear, Poire William spirit, and a hint of struck flint reduction. The palate is fresh, zippy and bright with real character and a seductively mouthwatering finish. Superb.
Caves des Amandiers Les Villages Petite Arvine de Leytron 2022, AOC Valais
This expression shows more perfume, hints of peach and white flowers. The palate is rich and textural with notes of guava before deliciously zippy fresh acids on the long finish. Very good.
Caves des Amandiers Les Parcellaires Petite Arvine En Anzé Saillon 2022, AOC Valais
This delightful 2022 shows green apple and pithy spice before a pear puree concentration, a fine palate tension, hints of bon bons, finishing with a delicately stony, reductive persistence. Very smart indeed.
Caves des Amandiers Les Parcellaires Petite Arvine Les Seyes Fully 2022, AOC Valais
Grown on Gneiss, this expression is more spicy and rich with tangy notes of apples and pears before a taut mineral complexity on the classically dry, stony finish. Lovely complexity on display.
Red Wines Tasted:
Caves des Amandiers Syrah 2019, AOC Valais
This classic Syrah is sourced from Fully and Leytron and shows delightful aromatics of plum and black berry compote, cured meats, black peppercorns, and an earthy olive hint. The palate is soft and fleshy from this warmer vintage without obscuring its stony tannins and spicy, pithy, black berry fruited finish.
Caves des Amandiers Gamay de Fully 2022, AOC Valais, 13.8% Abv.
Also grown on Gneiss, this wine shows a rich vein of stony raspberry fruits using 50% whole bunches in the ferment. This lends extra grip and minerality and the tannins are stony and mineral before giving way to layers of framboise and strawberry pips. A very serious Gamay.
Caves des Amandiers Les Villages Humagne Rouge de Laytron 2019 Red Blend, AOC Valais, 14% Abv.
Another serious offering packed full of stony strawberry and red currant. The wine is beautifully refined and ‘pretty’ with a sleek creamy, elegant texture and a seriously stony, mineral finish. Lovely weightless concentration and structure lend good age ability to the wine. Very impressive.
Caves des Amandiers Les Parcellaires Cornalin Combe d’Enfer 2022, AOC Valais
This attractive red picked at 15hl/ha shows lashings of cherry and chocolate, cocoa, and Dolcetto-like fruit spice over spicy black berries. Super plush with creamy silky tannins, this is a wonderfully fine-grained red with a plum compote length on the finish. Very fine indeed.
Caves des Amandiers Les Parcellaires Gamay d’Euloz Fully 2020, AOC Valais, 13% Abv.
This was apparently a fresh vintage in the Valais, and this semi-maceration carbonique Gamay displays layers of red currant, strawberry as well as deeper, darker foresty black berry fruits. Aged in 50% oak and 50% glass and amphorae, the palate is beautifully cool and creamy with delicately plush spicy nuances and a complex, stony mineral tannin finish. Lovely vibrancy and freshness.
If you are looking for high quality whites and reds made with modern techniques but with a firm nod towards artisanal tradition, the wines from the Caves des Amandiers represent a real ‘must-try’ range. I certainly look forward to returning in 2024 to hopefully taste the new vintages with Alexandre and explore some more of his unique vineyard parcels in the Valais region.
One of my highlight tastings of 2023 was undoubtedly a Porseleinberg Syrah vertical tasting hosted in London by winemaker Callie Louw, showing every vintage from the maiden 2010 all the way up until the newest 2021 release – the first time such a tasting had been done in London, if not anywhere for that matter? What was even more remarkable was that the wines were presented by the winemaker himself. Now, if you know Callie, he is even harder to extract from the Swartland than Eben Sadie, so hats off to whoever convinced him that this was a good time to travel to London to promote the wines he’s worked so hard to perfect for over a decade.
People know Callie as the quiet guy, the winemaker who would rather spend his time in the vineyards than in the winery. The silent, hard-grafting artisan that believes the best wines can only be made if you produce the very best grapes… and then the rest will fall into place naturally. He might well have been Dr Callie Louw, but fate decided otherwise, when he changed direction at the University of Stellenbosch to study viticulture rather than medicine, travelling to France, New Zealand, and the United States to do harvests after his graduation. He also completed three harvests at Rustenburg working with Adi Badenhorst on both the Rustenburg Estate range as well as the more commercial Brampton labels prior to the brands sale.
In 2004, Callie started his first permanent position at Vondeling, where he helped design the cellar, and then in 2005 moved on to work at the famous La Soula winery in Côtes Catalanes in the South of France, where it is said he discovered the importance of farming to produce great grapes instead of trying to make great wines inside the winery from average grapes. This would also have been a time when Callie made some of his first in-depth experimentation with organic and biodynamic practices, both of which play an important role in the current wines being produced today at Porseleinberg in the Swartland.
After a brief stint at what was thenTulbagh Mountain Vineyards, Callie was brought in to run and farm a newly purchased wine property in the Swartland in 2009 by Boekenhoutskloof director Marc Kent. This purchase was of course part of the big step for Boekenhoutskloof towards owning more land and vineyards after previously sourcing a lot of grapes from growers for their various brands. 2009 is also the date that marked their move to more vineyard ownership and specifically doing their own vineyard planting.
Funny enough, the small plantings at the original Porseleinberg property were bought and used by Callie and Adi for the Brampton brand back in the day. Nowadays, Callie oversees three important farms – the primary Porseleinberg property, the Goldmine (Kasteelberg) property next door to the Mullineux’s Roundstone farm, and a newer third partnership vineyard. From 2010, the first vintage of Porseleinberg was produced and from 2016, the Porseleinberg project turned completely organic before an enforced temporary hiatus with so many new vineyard plantings being established.
It has perhaps been Callie’s inaccessibility to the wider world that has helped build the aura surrounding the Porseleinberg brand, and today, he is as much part of the brands fabric and persona as the dry, scrubby renosterbos and blue schist soils are to the Porseleinberg vineyards. After eight years of solid, artisanal winemaking, in 2018 Callie made some of the first winemaking changes and started using the submerged cap fermentation process after working a vintage at the iconic Domaine Jamet in Côte Rotie. Before this change, the wines had been made essentially the same way over the past years, with grapes matured in 2 500 litre foudre, all purchased from new. This change in extraction management has arguably changed the wines for the better, allowing for gentler, more finessed extraction while still packing the wines with sturdy textural tannins.
Many consumers in South Africa have told me over the years that if they could do just one vertical tasting for wines drawn from over the past 10 to 15 years, a Porseleinberg Syrah vertical would be top or close to the top of their choices. So here goes… a possibly never to be repeated full vertical of a wine that critic Neal Martin described at the tasting as ‘possibly South Africa’s greatest ‘first growth Syrah’.
Tasting with Neal Martin and Callie Louw
Porseleinberg Vertical: 2010 to 2021:
Porseleinberg 2010, WO Swartland, 13.7% Abv.
Plummy red black opaque colour. Hints of wood smoke, cured meats and savoury black plum spice. Youthful, mineral and restrained on the nose. Palate shows dense grainy tannins, bright vibrant lemony acids and a potent, well balanced black fruited savoury dry grippy mineral finish. Intense and powerful still.
(96/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Porseleinberg 2011, WO Swartland, 13.9% Abv.
The famous unreleased vintage. Another good vintage in the Swartland according to Callie, this shows a dark opaque colour with a red black plum colour. Aromatics are vibrantly fresh, mineral and floral with dusty granite, fynbos and dried herbs. The palate is incredibly elegant, tight grained, but peppery, spicy, intense and chalky with proper grip and latent power! Wow! A bit of an iron fist in a velvet glove! But a beauty nevertheless!
(97+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Porseleinberg 2012, WO Swartland, 13.6% Abv.
Quite a subdued, dusty mineral nose with broody pithy black fruits, stony hints, dried fennel and sweet lavender. More elegant and loose knit on the palate, the tannins are supple, polished and elegant, even sweet. Still full of potent youthful black mineral laced fruits with notable elegance and finesse. A real beauty that’s ready to go now but certainly not showing its age.
(96+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Porseleinberg 2013, WO Swartland, 13.6% Abv.
60% foudre /40% concrete. Consistently an opaque red black colour. Lifted and perfumed with dried lavender, violets, fynbos and pithy black cherry notes. Another supple, vibrantly fresh, pinpoint palate with elegance and harmony but also intensity, purity and seamlessly tight knit powdery tannins and an exotic salty cassis reduction hint on the finish. A really spellbinding vintage. Love it!
(97/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Porseleinberg 2014, WO Swartland, 13.5% Abv.
Vintage coming off a very wet winter with massive rainfall. A big yielding vintage as well with 8 t/ha compared to circa 5 t/ha normally. Quite an earthy, plummy savoury nose with cured meats, dried lavender, potpourri, and a smoky, railway yard complexity. The palate shows delicious freshness, vibrant acids and a savoury melange of salty cassis, oyster shell and light soy hints, finishing with mouth coating chalky tannins without being obtrusive. A slightly unique expression but beautiful nonetheless.
(95+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Porseleinberg 2015, WO Swartland, 13.6% Abv.
“A stand-alone vintage” as Callie says. This shows a balance between power and finesse a la Northern Rhone with potpourri, dried perfumed lavender, red cherry spice, black berry and subtle smoky reductive cassis hints. In the mouth this is classically taut and precise framed by delicious ‘architecturally soaring’ acids, and incredibly dense fine grained chalky mineral tannins that show a harmoniously balanced power and intensity. A simply profound expression of Syrah.
(97+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Porseleinberg 2016, WO Swartland, 14% Abv.
No spring, just straight from a very dry winter into a dry summer with very dry conditions with rivers drying up in January. 1-2 t/ha yields. Nose shows a youthful sweetness of red berries, red plum sweet garrigue and dried violet flowers. The palate delivers massive weight and concentration of sweet black cherry and cassis fruit with layers of liquorice, tar, blackberry compote and subtle salty toffee and vanilla spice on the finish. An exotic, opulent but pretty vintage drinking very well now.
(96/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Porseleinberg 2017, WO Swartland, 14.1% Abv.
Shows again a big ripeness but with perhaps more restraint than the 2016. But of course another very dry season that was cooler with some later rains allowing 3 t/ha cropping. A very savoury Rhoney nose with aromatics of sweet herbs, garrigue, wood spice with weightless elegance, subtle restraint and incredible finesse. Texturally pinpoint but a bit of a sleeper still.
(96/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Porseleinberg 2018, WO Swartland, 14.3% Abv.
Submerged cap used a la Jamet for the first time in 2018. Another dry year, the wine is packed with tannins but they are less obvious allowing fruit power and concentration to shine. “Eminently age worthy” according to Callie. The nose shows plenty of sweet herbs, sappy spice, sandalwood, garrigue and savoury Rhoney notes of black berries, cured smoked meats and olive tapenade. The palate shows massive concentration with elegance, finesse and a profound, mouthwatering tangy acidity with pithy red plum and mulberry notes on the finish. Suave tannins, creamy elegant length and a real Northern Rhone presence. This is of course the fabled Tim Atkin MW 100 pointer… but a delicious wine nonetheless!
(97+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Porseleinberg 2019, WO Swartland, 13.9% Abv.
Dark opaque black plum colour with a more translucent ruby rim. Slightly subdued aromatics with earthy, sappy notes of black plum, black berry and savoury raw meat nuances. Soft and supple on the palate, there is plenty of green herby spice, green peppercorns, coriander and sweet leaf with fine grained mineral tannins, ample grip but a slightly shorter finish. Leave this one in your cellar for now.
(95+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Porseleinberg 2020, WO Swartland, 13.6% Abv.
Showing in a slightly shy restrained manner, the aromatics need coaxing out the glass to reveal notes of salted caramel tinged with black berries, smoky charcuterie and dried herbs and Provencal garrigue. Supple, elegant and creamy in the mouth with dry chalk soft tannins with a slight grip but supported by ample layers of black fruit, soft integrated harmonious acids and plenty of black peppery spice on the finish. A good rather than great vintage.
(95+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Porseleinberg 2021, WO Swartland, 13.9% Abv.
2021 was a long, cool blockbuster vintage for Porseleinberg after a cold, wet winter. Also the fourth vintage using the new ‘submerged cap technique’ that Callie brought back from Cote Rotie after visiting Domaine Jamet, the aromatics are wonderfully deep, dark and power packed with exotic sweet Provencal herbs, olive tapenade, black currant, savoury cured meats, sappy wood spice, and a very seductive black cherry intensity. The palate is super sleek, bright and fleshy, and the texture deliciously opulent, generous and beautifully creamy with salty cassis, smoked German charcuterie, chargrilled meats and a long, suave, polished finish with the most well managed and perfectly formed tannins of any Porseleinberg vintage to date. A very pure and profound expression of Syrah from one of the world’s great terroirs. Simply wow! Exceptional. Drink now until 2035+.
(98+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
So, there you have it. A few take away points from this snapshot tasting. If you have any of these vintages, including the 2010 maiden release, you can sleep easy as they are all pure, clean, and incredibly youthful still. No rush whatsoever if they are stored correctly. Another surprise, was perhaps how well the lesser regarded vintages were showing such as 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016 etc. Again, less robust, blockbuster vintages but often the wines I thought I would like to take home and drink.
Porseleinberg vintages are not cheap wines for local South Africans to buy and with the 2021 hitting the shelves in the UK at first release prices of circa £69.99 per bottle, the wine ought to be pretty good. Having said that, it does indeed deliver in spades!
The Porseleinberg Wines are imported into the UK by New Generation Wines and are available for retail on release from specialist South African merchant Museum Wines.
The original Boekenhoutskloof farm in Franschhoek was established in 1776. The chairs on the now famous wine labels all pay tribute to the skills of the 18th century craftsmen and their achievements in creating beautiful furniture from natural sources, in this case, mostly Boekenhout or indigenous Cape Beech trees, which were highly prized for furniture making at the time.
Under the leadership of Marc Kent, the first Boekenhoutskloof wines were produced in 1996 after the property was bought in 1993, with the legendary 1997 Syrah capturing the attention of wine critics globally. Over the years, there have been several brand extensions including the creation of the Porcupine Ridge and Wolf Trap brands as well as the Chocolate Block red blend.
Marc Kent
More recently, considerable investments in the Swartland have led to large scale plantings of mostly Syrah, which for Boekenhoutskloof culminates in the pinnacle of quality with their Porseleinberg Syrah brand managed and produced by Callie Louw. On the eve of the vintage 2021 Semillon, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah releases, I thought it would be an opportune moment to reflect on the quality of several back vintages of each wine. My notes were taken from a tutored masterclass in London presented by Marc Kent in January 2023.
Semillon Flight:
Traditionally made from circa 97% Semillon from three vineyards planted in 1902, 1936 and 1942, and 3% Muscat d’Alexandrie planted in 1902.
Boekenhoutskloof Semillon 2001
Honey, buttered toast, salted caramel and lanolin on the nose. Soft, piquant Sherry like palate with richness, an incredibly saline vein, and deliciously pithy and fresh with a bitter almond skin finish.
(Wine Safari Score: 92/10 Greg Sherwood MW)
Boekenhoutskloof Semillon 2002
Dark gold in colour. The nose shows mushrooms, forest floor, earthy savoury notes, old honey. The palate is creamy, revealing salted caramel, a rich core of yellow stone fruit and a nutty walnut finish. Fresher in the mouth than on the nose.
(Wine Safari Score: 93/10 Greg Sherwood MW)
Boekenhoutskloof Semillon 2009
Aromatics of honey on buttered white toast, white blossom, honey suckle, lanolin and a touch of stony reduction. Beautiful balance and creamy texture, fabulous purity, with liquid minerality, a fine tension and a good, long concentrated finish. Truly stylish! Wow!
(Wine Safari Score: 97/10 Greg Sherwood MW)
Boekenhoutskloof Semillon 2010
Aromatics of dusty minerals, tea leaf, dry tobacco and lemon peel. The palate is creamy, pure and precise showing lemon butter, honey on white toast, and a piquant, nutty, pleasantly bitter finish. Rich and textural with plenty of dry extract, a silky texture and salty taut finish.
(Wine Safari Score: 95+/10 Greg Sherwood MW)
Boekenhoutskloof Semillon 2020
Attractive pale gold. Reductive white Burgundy nose with peach stone, crushed limestone, and smoky white citrus. Sleek and pure frutied, crystalline and focused with superb wound spring tension and a reductive, smoky minerality on the long finish.
(Wine Safari Score: 97+/10 Greg Sherwood MW)
Cabernet Sauvignon Flight:
Until the 2014 vintage, Boekenhoutskloof only produced a Wine of Origin Franschhoek Cabernet Sauvignon, which was then joined by the WO Stellenbosch Cabernet.
Boekenhoutskloof Cabernet Sauvignon 2001, WO Franschhoek
Salty caramel, piquant oak spice with savoury black tea notes with leather and sweet earthy red currant fruit underneath. Lovely intensity with a defined focus and saline, tart glassy frame. Very Claret-like, cool and classical.
(Wine Safari Score: 93/10 Greg Sherwood MW)
Boekenhoutskloof Cabernet Sauvignon 2002, WO Franschhoek
The nose is very complete and complex, full of sweet tobacco, black chai tea spice, dense earthy black currant and black plum. Plush and vibrant on the palate with glassy acids, a slightly angular frame but also beautiful balance. Quite traditional but really lovely now.
(Wine Safari Score: 94/10 Greg Sherwood MW)
Boekenhoutskloof Cabernet Sauvignon 2009, WO Franschhoek
Big vintage, big wine. Dense and punchy with earthy blue and black fruits, stewed plums and sweet tannery leather. Plush and creamy, touch piquant with notes of tertiary sweet tomato emerging. Possibly some slight oxidation on the bottle? I would expect more from a pristine bottle of 2009, a great red vintage in SA.
(Wine Safari Score: 93/100?? Greg Sherwood MW)
Boekenhoutskloof Cabernet Sauvignon 2010, WO Franschhoek
Much tighter, denser, and compact with ample notes of tannery leather, black berry fruits and exotic peach skin top notes. Palate is youthful and fresh, still with slightly drying grippy tannins, crisp soft fresh acids and a harmonious balance overall. If the fruit holds while the tannins soften further, this could be an absolute cracker.
(Wine Safari Score: 95+/10 Greg Sherwood MW)
Boekenhoutskloof Cabernet Sauvignon 2020, WO Franschhoek
Cool, sleek and elegant. Shows coffee cream, mocha, charcoal embers and piquant black chocolate. Very fine grained, compact and harmonious with a feeling of real precision. Classy and elegant as always, with a fresh, fine grained grippy finish. Should evolve into an absolute gem.
(Wine Safari Score: 96/10 Greg Sherwood MW)
Boekenhoutskloof Cabernet Sauvignon 2020, WO Stellenbosch
Stony, broody and tight with a hint of tilled earth, graphite, black cherry and stewed earthy red berries. Lovely power, muscle and shape in the mouth with creamy drying youthful tannins, and a long, black fruited, mineral finish. Archetypal Stellenbosch Cabernet.
(Wine Safari Score: 96/10 Greg Sherwood MW)
Syrah Flight – (SH21 Syrah Clone):
Boekenhoutskloof Syrah 2001, WO Western Cape
Polished mahogany, wood spice, savoury red fruits with a hint of leather and molasses. Palate is dense and lactic, chocolatey, and quite appealing. Still a big bold wine with some tertiary development on the minty finish.
(Wine Safari Score: 93/10 Greg Sherwood MW)
Boekenhoutskloof Syrah 2002, WO Western Cape
Touch of reduction still with blue and black fruits, violets and purple flowers. Palate is fresh, crisp, and taut with sweet tangy red and earthy black fruits, hints of leather, tobacco, cured meats and kalamata olive tapenade on the finish. Lovely cooler vintage.
(Wine Safari Score: 95/10 Greg Sherwood MW)
Boekenhoutskloof Syrah 2009, WO Western Cape
Cool, stony and sleek with chalky drying tannins and earthy aromatics of coffee bean, stewed plum, and sun raisined cherries. Super creamy and plush on the finish with a savoury, tertiary hint developing. Drinking very well but probably won’t improve further, so start enjoying now.
(Wine Safari Score: 94/10 Greg Sherwood MW)
Boekenhoutskloof Syrah 2010, WO Western Cape
Cooler vintage like 2002. Nose is smoky and savoury with sappy red and black berry fruit nuances, red apple skins and a stony mineral dustiness. Sweet fruited, plush and broad on the palate with savoury red berry fruits, strawberry jam and earthy, youthful notes. A serious vintage making a serious wine with a very subtle tarry finish. Yum.
(Wine Safari Score: 95+/10 Greg Sherwood MW)
Boekenhoutskloof Syrah 2020, WO Swartland
Boekenhoutskloof are now farming over 200 hectares of Swartland fruit from three farms. (The 2011 vintage included some Porseleinberg fruit.) Newer vintages consist of 90% Porseleinberg and 10% Goldmine Syrah from the farm next door to Mullineux’s Roundstone property. Deliciously youthful and grapey with notes of violets, lavender, sweet grilled herbs, charcoal embers and a leafy sapidity. Palate is super light on its feet with purity, black cherry elegance and pithy graphite hints, finishing with a weightless concentration and a soft blueberry complexity. Very classy indeed.
(Wine Safari Score: 96/10 Greg Sherwood MW)
The wines are imported into the UK by New Generation Wines and are available retail from South African fine wine specialist merchant Museum Wines. http://www.museumwines.co.uk
The first Cabernet Sauvignon was produced from the Journey’s End estate in 2001 and the first Chardonnay in 2002, all from estate fruit. The Kumala brand, which used the Journey’s End name for its premium tier for a short period of time, was sold off in 2004 followed by a complete separation of brands. The first real resurrected “Journey’s End” brand personality started in 2007 when Rollo Gabb took over and a first shipment of wine was exported to the UK through Bibendum Wines, consisting of the 2005 vintages of Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Shiraz, and Merlot, signalling the end of the old regime and the start of the new.
The Journey’s End winery is now comprised of a 120-hectare estate which produces a small range of premium hand-crafted wines following minimal intervention, sustainable and organic practices. I caught up in London recently with Rollo Gabb at Quo Vadis, one of the more famous restaurants in his UK business empire, and had an opportunity to reacquaint myself with some of the latest releases from Journey’s End.
Journeys End V6 Sauvignon Blanc 2022, WO Stellenbosch, 13% Abv.
Made from vineyards situated 200m above sea level on south facing slopes, the wine remains on its lees for circa nine months in stainless steel tanks. Lush, vibrant and energetic with tangy tropical fruit acids, and notes of green papaya, mango, white peach, gooseberry and a deliciously vibrant fruit concentration and intensity. A really charming expression with plenty of precision and character.
(Wine Safari Score: 93/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Rollo Gabb tasting in London in 2023.Journey’s End winemaker Mike Dawson
Journeys End V1 Sauvignon Blanc 2022, WO Stellenbosch, 13.5% Abv.
Aged in 10% new oak and 80% second fill barrels with 10% also in egg / amphora. 50%/50% wild and inoculated yeasts in the fermentation with malolactic discouraged. Shows powdery aromatics of green melon, green apple, and white blossom with a beautifully round, harmoniously textured palate that is very subtle with no edges, round and voluptuous, but also delicately spicy with a lovely long length.
(Wine Safari Score: 92/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Journeys End V1 Sauvignon Blanc / Semillon 2022, WO Stellenbosch, 12.9% Abv.
An 87% Sauvignon Blanc and 13% Semillon blend mostly naturally fermented. Classically vibrant and fresh, this wine encapsulates the maritime freshness, energy and zestiness of the Helderberg. The aromatics display lovely notes of wet slate, gooseberry, melon, greengage plums and cut grass that melt into a seamless, harmonious palate bolstered by a tangy acidity, plenty of fleshy peachy fruit and a long, tropically kissed finish. Very impressive indeed.
(Wine Safari Score: 95/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Journeys End Destination Chardonnay 2021, WO Stellenbosch, 13.38% Abv.
A 100% Chardonnay from a single block, that is vulnerable to uneven ripening. Picked in 5 to 6 passes over two weeks. Whole bunch pressed into 228 and 300 litre barrels, 15% new and 85% used oak. Normally, 10-15% malolactic from a few rogue barrels. Shows layers of white pepper and oak spice over pear, green apple and pithy white citrus complexity. A very sophisticated expression with a subtle hint of sapidity before a cool, creamy, elegant mid-palate brimming with vitality, silky soft textured phenolics and a stony, granitic pithy finish. Classy and plush with lovely concentration on the finish.
(Wine Safari Score: 94/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Journey’s End V5 Cabernet Franc 2021, WO Stellenbosch, 14% Abv.
First vintage produced in 2017 with increasing production slowly over time. The wine was aged in French old oak barrels for 14 months. Delicious aromatics offer chocolate, cherry, mocha, sweet tobacco, sappy cedar, sweet leaf and an attractive underlay of cassis and blue berry fruits. Picante and spicy on the palate, this is a very well honed, vibrant and superbly elegant expression that is neither too cedary or nor too peppery. Simply blissfully fresh, vibrant and perfectly balanced.
(Wine Safari Score: 94+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Journey’s End The Griffin Syrah 2018, WO Stellenbosch, 14.5% Abv.
From a 24- to 25-year-old Syrah block using 100% whole bunches on the stems incorporating carbonic maceration and full malolactic fermentation in oak barrels. Spends 18 months in 16% new American oak with the remainder going into second fill French oak barrels. The aromatics are dark and tarry, packed with stewed black cherries, black plum, olive tapenade over a sappy, resinous, smoky black berry complexity. Super rich and unctuous on the palate, the wine boasts textured layers of black berry fruit concentration, sweet mulberry, sappy sweet plum with a vanilla pod kiss of American oak on the finish.
(Wine Safari Score: 94+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Journey’s End Cape Doctor Red Blend 2018, WO Stellenbosch, 14.5% Abv.
A complex blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot aged in 100% new French oak barrels. An opulently textured, plush red blend that really shows a bit of swagger. Jam packed full of red berry confit, plum compote, smoky granitic minerality, tobacco leaf, and a hint of sweet vanilla pod spice. Creamy textured, sumptuous and plush, hedonistic but also beautifully approachable, expressive and accessible now. Very impressive blend.
Mullineux Wines run by Chris and Andrea Mullineux is one of the most respected quality producers in South Africa as further evidenced by their recent inclusion in the Top 5 Wineries of South Africa poll conducted by Winemag.co.za. With their Signature red and white range only released onto the market as recently as 2008, and their Single Terroir Series wines first released in 2010, they have wasted little time in elevating their wines to some of the most sought-after in the Swartland and the Western Cape.
With Andrea Mullineux in London recently, I caught up with her over lunch to taste what she considers are her finest expressions of Mullineux Syrahs to date. With the Swartland experiencing a very long, cool, atypical vintage, I was intrigued to see what all the hype was about.
Beautifully taut and tight knit with pinpoint aromatics of crushed granite, gravel, delicate violet and lily perfume, juniper berries and subtle broody black berry fruit notes. The minerality and sappy herbal spices bristle in the glass with an incredibly fine-grained palate with delicately drying, chalky, satin textured tannins that will ultimately come to define this incredible vintage and its astounding weightless focus, dry extract power, cool freshness and seductive finesse. This is a truly exceptional, awe inspiring creation that pushes new quality boundaries for tannin management and palate precision. Drink from 2024 to 2044+.
This beautiful Schist vintage is a real stunner, a gorgeous head turner that oozes quality, confidence and class. Deep, dark and multi-layered, the aromatics boasts complex notes of pressed pink blossoms, Parma violet candies, creme de cassis and saline black berry with delicate notes of cigar ash, graphite, and a concertinaed liquid mineral spice. Fabulously deep, tightly wound, and tight knit at its core but still incredibly, displays its own stylish opulence, expressive character and generosity without compromising the delicately dry tannin extract intensity on the finish. A beautifully spellbinding, seductive expression of Syrah that is sure to take on new dimensions of textural and flavour complexity with extra time in bottle. Drink from 2024 to 2040+.
(Wine Safari Score: 97/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Mullineux Iron Kasteelsig Syrah 2021, 13.5% Abv.
1.8g/l RS | 5.5g/l TA | 3.80pH
Another incredibly intense, densely textured, finely crafted wine displaying a uniquely individual terroir personality of damp earth and iron from the koffeeklip soils, black liquorice and black olive tapenade with saline cassis and black berry, graphite and oyster shell nuances. The beauty and precision on the palate is spectacular and this is where you really get to witness the compact, dry extract density of the Iron vineyard combined with the cool, intense, highly finessed tannin structure of the 2021 vintage. This is a simply sublime composition of classical terroir-driven Syrah that really stops you in your tracts with its utter majesty and poise. Possibly the finest Iron Syrah produced since 2010. Drink from 2024 until 2044+.
(Wine Safari Score: 98/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
The Mullineux wines are imported into the UK by Liberty Wines and available retail from South African fine wine specialist Museum Wines.
Jasper Wickens and his viticulturist wife, Franziska Wickens, live and make wine on her family farm, Waterval (Waterfall), in the very heart of the Swartland. Neighbouring some of South Africa’s most sought-after Swartland producers in the Siebritskloof Valley on the northern side of the Paardeberg, they are in the proverbial thick of it with people like Adi Badenhorst, Jasper’s previous employer on Kalmoesfontein, Eben Sadie on Rotsvas, and David & Nadia Sadie.
The Paardeberg, with its 500-million-year-old magma and the resulting domes of granite and microclimates, makes for an intriguing winegrowing terroir. The different soil types, specifically decomposed granite, offer a freshness unique to the Valley to both whites and reds – something the whole wine-drinking world has started cottoning on to. With an unusually cool and slow ripening vintage like 2021, Jasper Wickens has produced some of his most profound wines yet.
Jasper’s Waterval farm wine cellar in the Paardeberg. Tasting new vintages with Jasper in March 2023.
At a recent tasting, I caught up with famous wine critic Dr Jamie Goode from the Wineanorak.com and shared a bottle of the latest release Swerwer 2021 Shiraz from Jasper. We were all suitably impressed.
JC Wickens Swerwer Shiraz 2021, WO Swartland, 13.5% Abv.
The Swartland is a warm, dry grape growing environment which makes this beautiful new release Shiraz 2021 from Jasper Wickens all the more remarkable. A bright vibrant ruby red colour, the expressive aromatics simply burst out of the glass, teasing the senses with incredibly intense, pure floral aromatics of violets, cherry blossom and rose petals that melt into pristine notes of sweet red cherries, tart red plums together with hints of cranberry and wild strawberry. The subtle notions of white pepper and salty red liquorice follow to the exquisitely elegant tight-knit palate that displays wonderful freshness and energy, drawing on the cooler vintage conditions of 2021 to offer up such impressive purity and precision matched by a deft pinpoint structure. The finish is delightfully cool, mineral and restrained delivering a deliciously focused raspberry and cherry fruited saline persistence that will definitely lure you back again and again for another sip. A truly noteworthy expression of Swerwer Shiraz. Drink on release and over the next 6 to 8+ years.
(Wine Safari Score: 96/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
The JC Wickens Swerwer wines are imported and distributed in the UK by South African specialist merchant Museum Wines.
I reviewed Fernando Rueda’s first Rueda Family Wines Carignan in December 2021 and the review garnered a lot of interest as one of the very few single varietal Carignan cultivar wines produced in South Africa. The second release from the 23-year-old Wellington vineyard is now joined by a sumptuous Syrah produced from Stellenbosch fruit on Karibib. Both wines are produced with minimal intervention in a more artisanal style but shouldn’t be view as ‘natural wines.’ Not yet available in the UK, but do track them down if you are in the Cape.
Torero And Pasiphae 2022 Syrah, WO Stellenbosch, 14.37% Abv.
1.02g/l RS | 4.75g/l TA | 3.81pH
This 2022 Syrah displays a wonderfully exotic aromatics that combines intricately fragrant notes of Parma violets, purple rock candy, grape soda, raspberry confit, melted black liquorice and piquant black cherry with more subtle hints of smoked meats, black pepper corns and graphite spice developing in the glass. The palate is beautifully full, plush and fleshy with sweet creamy tannins, tangy acids and a seductive peppery layer of blue berries, creme de cassis and mulberry nuances. An impressively intense, powerful expression of Syrah that shows its obvious ripeness without compromising either its fruit purity or its mineral focus. A very well-honed expression of Stellenbosch Syrah! Drink now and over the next 5 to 8+ years. (1,292 bottles and 28 magnums produced)
(Wine Safari Score: 94/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Torero And the Suit of Lights Carignan 2022, WO Wellington, 14.86% Abv.
2.19g/l RS | 5.36g/l TA | 3.61pH
The maiden release of the Torero Carignan 2021 was an impressively tight, taut, slightly reductive creation that led with a stony mineral precision. The 2022 is an altogether riper, richer, more densely fruited example that boasts a flamboyant bruleed black fruited aromatics of black currant confit, plum spice and black cherry over black olive tapenade, iron filings and a subtle roasted vanilla pod nuance. Where the 2021 was a cool, slightly lean 12.5% Abv., the 2022 is a riper, more opulent 14.86% Abv. which lends a massive amount of extra glycerol depth and breadth to the palate. Carignan can quite often be quite a meaty, rustic variety, but this impressive Torero tames the wild side of Carignan, offering up pure, plush blue and black berry fruits with creamy soft sweet tannins and a long, spicy, densely fruited cola tinged finish. This is surely one of the finest single cultivar examples in the country!? Drink on release and over the next 5 to 8+ years. (856 bottles and 12 magnums produced)
This maiden release red is certainly a big deal for Sakkie Mouton. Having worked so hard with his past vintages of white wine releases since 2018 to cement a solid unwavering reputation for characterful terroir driven Wes Kus quality, an incremental amount of attention to detail has gone into this maiden release 100% Syrah to make sure it impresses.
The label, as Sakkie tells me, “is a reference to the rise of the West Coast as a new wine region and showcases divers picking grapes under the ocean, which contributes to the salty taste on the palate.” The label of course also refers to the “salty tongues” of the hard-working Wes Kus farmers, miners, grape growers, labourers and fishermen – a very hardy bunch who are known to speak often using some rather colourful language.
The grapes for the 2022 Syrah were picked early in the morning and chilled before fermentation using 30% whole bunches in open top fermenters. Fermentation started after three days of cold soaking and lasted for around two weeks with pump overs three times per day. After fermentation, the wine was racked into one 500 litre and one 300 litre barrel for ageing for around nine months. The wine was bottled unfiltered and unfined with a small addition of sulphur.
Another mesmerising wine from Sakkie Mouton.
I have tasted this wine four times since its birth – once in tank, once in barrel and then again twice in the form of a finished bottling, and each opportunity has left me feeling completely exhilarated as I saw the wine evolve and progress. The final offering is certainly something to behold, revealing beautifully perfumed aromatics so redolent of the fragrant Northern Rhone Syrahs that Sakkie often finds himself fawning over at tastings.
Sakkie Mouton Family Wines Dawn of the Salty Tongues Syrah 2022, WO Oliphants River, 12.94% Abv.
3.0g/l RS | 5.6g/l TA | 3.6pH
Made from 100% Syrah grapes from vines planted in 1999 on decomposed Sandstone soils 25 kilometres from the cold Atlantic ocean, the nose boasts a salty, sappy tinged perfume of rose petals, violets, and sweet lavender with underlying notes of red cherries, cranberries, tart wild strawberries, and a subtle savoury, peppery, cured meat hint accompanied by a delightful herbaceous dried herb and graphite smoky spice. The delicate maritime influences on the nose follow to a vivacious, vibrant, energetic palate that shows a suave structure with finely cultured mineral tannins all in perfect balance and harmony, being wonderfully cool, pure, and crystalline allowing the palate fruits to shine but also for the true salty, maritime influences of the West Coast to make their mark with hints of kelp, nori seaweed, salty liquorice and picante black cherry and cassis on the finish. What else can I say other than this is undoubtedly one of the most exciting new additions to the South African Syrah landscape in the past 5+ years… which is saying a hell of a lot! Drink on release to experience the wines incredible veuve and energy but be sure to bury a few in the cellar for 5 to 8+ years. Baie mooi Sakkie!!
(Wine Safari Score: 97/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Sakkie Mouton Family Wines are imported exclusively into the UK by South African fine wine specialist merchant Museum Wines and for the UK on-trade by Wood Winters.
They often say the true measure of the greatness of any winery is made by assessing how good their entry level wines are every year. The Brookdale Estate in Paarl is undoubtedly a grand venture and already owner Tim Rudd has spared no expense trying to elevate the estate’s wines to the highest level possible in the shortest amount of time possible. Ambitious indeed. However, with most of the original estate’s vines having been grubbed up after purchase out of necessity, the time scale for producing the full envisaged Brookdale Estate flagship wine range has inevitably been lengthened considerably.
But every cloud has a silver lining and in the case of all the younger vine fruit coming from the new plantings, Brookdale Estate have established a very impressive entry level range… (if you can call £15 – £16 wines entry level?). But with other similarly ambitious larger scale South African wine brands like Adi Badenhorst’s Secateurs range now hitting the shelves at a similar price level, the Mason Road range from Brookdale can only be viewed as well priced considering the plaudits the whites and reds have already garnered over the past 2 years. I recently tasted through the Mason Road 2022 new releases and was suitably impressed.
The 2022 vintage will be remembered as a cool season before harvest, followed by a sudden temperature spike from January. Good vineyard practices were followed, and canopies were managed well, which delivered exceptional grape analyses and wine quality. Temperatures rose sharply during early January and accelerated the early cultivars’ ripening dates, although Brookdale harvested more than a week later than in 2021. Frequent high temperatures during February further contributed to harvest dates shifting sooner and harvesting returned to normal timing by the end of February. Brookdale were fortunate not to experience any crop losses or mildew infections leading into harvest.
From a 30-year-old Chenin Blanc vineyard planted in 1993 that was picked in four separate batches at differing degrees of ripeness, has allowed winemaker Kiara Scott to create a wine with incredible depth and presence for the price. We can all name a few budget Chenin Blanc brands in South Africa, but the Mason Road has continued to impress from day one making it an incredibly savvy purchase. The 2022 shows complex aromatics of dusty dry stable hay, fynbos, pineapple pastille, lemon cordial, white citrus and a stony granitic crushed rock minerality. Classic old vine Paarl Chenin Blanc traditionally boasts rich exotic layers of peach and pineapple fruit on the palate and this vintage is positively brimming with a tangy sweet and sour concentration, bright mouth-watering acids and a long, intense, crystalline limey finish that is both salty and tart with a pleasing glycerol gloss. Simply put, this wine performs in a manner more akin to super premium expressions of Chenin Blanc from the Cape making it something very special indeed. Drink on release and over the 5 to 8+ years.
This is a delightful coppery salmon pink Provencal-styled Rosé made from Cinsault, Grenache and Syrah with exotic and enticing aromatics of fraise de bois wild strawberries, dried apricots, hibiscus and subtle watermelon nuances over dried herbs, fynbos and a delicate granitic minerality. The palate is cool, crisp and classical but fabulously intense and evocative with a vibrant tangy sweet-sour acidity of blood oranges, raspberries, lime cordial and sour cherries before an energetic but incredibly precise, pristine crystalline finish. An instantly attractive Rosé that looks set to continue building its growing cult following internationally. Drink on release and over 2 to 3 years.
(Wine Safari Score: 91+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Brookdale Estate Mason Road Syrah 2022, WO Paarl, 14.56% Abv.
2.6g/l RS | 5.1g/l TA | 3.66pH
This is another impressive Mason Road Syrah release that aims for the stars and comes pretty close to hitting the bullseye! With a small percentage of the Syrah grapes fermented whole bunch without destalking, the nose reveals a complex array of aromatics led by sweet cherry kirsch liquor notes, hints of sweet coriander laced with red peppercorns, cured meats, bresaola, sappy vanilla wood spice and an undertone of salty crème de cassis. The palate is delightfully supple and fleshy showing an impressive density and textural breadth, while always remaining incredibly harmonious and balanced. The juicy acids add a fine tangy, mouthwatering frame from which delicious layers of black berry, bramble berry and spicy plum fruits are proffered for your palate pleasure, before the savoury finishing finale. A simply wonderful expression of Syrah offering sophistication, value for money and incredible drinkability.
(Wine Safari Score: 93/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Brookdale Estate Mason Road GSM 2022, WO Paarl, 14.68% Abv.
2.4g/l RS | 5.0g/l TA | 3.60pH
Despite the cooler vintage conditions running into the pre-harvest period in January 2022, warmer temperatures from February onwards have ensured a deliciously ripe and opulent red boasting exotic aromatics of crushed sour cherries, Parma violets, burnt bushveld, ripe cranberries, salty red liquorice and a broader inviting melange of summer berries. This really is a fabulously complex maiden release focusing on Grenache and Syrah grapes that were separately whole bunch fermented before a short maceration and then further ageing in 500 and 300 litre barrels. The energy and vibrancy revealed on the nose follow succinctly to the palate that’s packed full of spicy, peppery black currant fruit, tart bright tangy acids and a silky soft fine-grained finish showing a subtle kiss of salted caramel. I’m not sure how much more wine drinking enjoyment you can pack into a bottle!? Drink on release and over the next 3 to 5+ years.
(Wine Safari Score: 92+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
The Brookdale Estate and Mason Road ranges are imported exclusively into the UK by South African fine wine specialist merchant Museum Wines.
Greg Sherwood MW 