Meerlust Chardonnay 2024
Meerlust Chardonnay 2023 is very bright pale-yellow colour with green, vivacious hue. Complex, appealing nose of apricot, peach, pear, lemon zest and floral notes with hints of toasted almonds. On the palate the wine is well structured and linear but retains generous focused stone fruit flavours with sleek, balanced, and crisp acidity. The wine remains vivacious and fresh on the finish with clean citrus fruit underpinned by minerality. The wine has a long, very pleasant lingering finish.
93/100 Tim Atkin
Now sourced from parcels on shale as well as granite soils, the Meerlust Chardonnay is a lot fresher and less worked than it used to be. Sourced from six different blocks, it has apricot and citrus fruit flavours, a hint of wax and sourdough bread and subtle toasty oak. 2023-26
Meerlust Merlot 2022
Deep ruby red. Typical Merlot notes of black plum, dark cherry, dried herbs underpinned by mocha and tobacco. The palate is generous with juicy dark fruit, while still delicate on the finish, showing complex cherry tobacco flavours coupled with a fine acidity. This wine shows will age gracefully and will gain in complexity and suppleness of tannin for many years to come.
100% Merlot
Ageing potential
10 - 15 years, provided wine is stored in ideal cellar conditions.
In the cellar
This vintage is 100% Merlot. It is made up of a few individual parcels that are all fermented separately before undergoing malolactic fermentation in 300 L barrels. After 6 months in barrel, the final components were selected and blended and put back to barrel for 12
months in 40% new French oak for further maturation before bottling.
SPRINGFIELD ESTATE The Work of Time 2019
SPRINGFIELD ESTATE The Work of Time 2018 has a deep and concentrated nose, it opens up on the palate to reveal crisp cassis fruit with smoky edges and a hint of green pepper all hung on a ripe firm structure. Excellent balance.
32% Cabernet Franc, 31% Merlot, 19% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Petit Verdot
Viña Cobos Bramare Malbec Lujan de Cuyo 2022
On the nose it has a great presence of red fruits with acid notes, cassis, strawberry; it slowly reveals notes of caramel, spices, white pepper, chocolate and graphite, together with delicate notes of mint and rosemary.
The story of Viña Cobos winery really started with the arrival of international winemaker Paul Hobbs in Mendoza in the late 1980s. Born in upstate New York to a farming family, Paul Hobbs started his career in winemaking after studying viticulture and enology at UC Davis in California in the 1970s. He soon rose to fame as a promising young winemaker while working at two eminent wineries in Napa: Opus One and Simi Winery.
Graham Beck Blanc de Blanc Cuvee 2019
Graham Beck Blanc de Blanc Cuvee 2019
Bright lime green colour with rich aromas of fresh limes, green apples, pears and lemon zest on the nose. Delicately balanced flavors of succulent citrus, brioche and spice combines with yeasty complexity, broadening the palate with layered textures and leading to a long finish
CELLAR TREATMENT:
Whole bunch pressing ensures fractional recovery. Only the cuvee juice (premium quality juice) was selected for fermentation. Of the cuvee, 50% was fermented in specific Piece Champenoise 205L barrels to ensure richness and extra dimension of flavour and a creamy texture. Only 7% new barrels are added each year to the balance of older barrels to ensure harmony of the wood integration during fermentation. After fermentation, the wine was aged in barrels for 5 months and then selectively blended with other parcels of the best Chardonnay that were fermented in stainless steel. The final blended base wine was then bottled for the second fermentation with yeast contact of at least 48 months before degorgement.
Holden Manz Chardonnay 2020
The Holden Manz Chardonnay 2020
Produced using grapes from two cool climate sites. One is next to the cool ocean breezes of False Bay and the other high on the slopes of the Simonsberg. The berries are picked in the cool of the early morning then chilled to 5ºC before being whole bunch pressed using the “champagne” cycle. Clarified juice is wild fermented 50% in new 225 litre French oak barrels and 30% in second fill barrels. Batonnage only starts when two thirds of the fermentation is completed. The wine is bottled approximately 12 months after fermentation with around 10% of the wine passing through malolactic fermentation.
Harry Hartman Summer Wild Ferment Sauvignon Blanc 2020
Harry Hartman Summer Wild Ferment Sauvignon Blanc 2020 upon tasting the wine, that almond skin character persists with a briny texture and taut acidity leaping over your palate. Reminiscent of the label that served as the wine's first introduction, it's also got the lightness of morning mist precipitating on wet soil. Don't expect pronounced tropical fruit, but revel in its salt-specked character that would make a perfect pairing with white chocolate, ushering the shy fruit to the fore. A wild ferment often invites unusual aromas, toning the pungent lemongrass aromas with hints of spice and a creamy note of old-fashioned lemon candy. Less intervention elevated this wine, and it exudes the same energy of the bird on its label, inviting you to languish in its uninhibited nature.
Kanonkop Paul Sauer 2021
The Paul Sauer 2021 is the flagship Bordeaux Blend style red wine from Kanonkop.
The Blend - 69% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Cabernet Franc and 14% Merlot
Deep ruby colour. On the nose, a classic, perfumed packed with cherries, cassis, cedar, cigar box, tea leaves and tomato paste, followed by a palate of cassis, cranberries, savoury plum and sweet vanilla. In the glass, a complex multi-layered, refined wine with a beautiful structure, balanced acidity, elegant, fine grained tannins and a long, persistent finish.
99/100 Greg Sherwood
Kanonkop Estate Prepare to Release Possibly One of Their Most Iconic Vintages Ever – Tasting the New Paul Sauer 2021…
A blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Merlot, and 13% Cabernet Franc, the 2021 Paul Sauer is beautifully intense and utterly seductive, the aromatics pulling you in with their perfumed notes of incense, violets, black currant, saline oyster shell, black cherry, sweet cherry tobacco and graphite with subtle blueberry notes and a subtle kiss of sweet cedar and vanilla pod spice. The palate shows sprawling breadth and depth with a gentle picante spice together with a noticeably intense salinity and maritime, nori seaweed nuance before more bold flavours of black currant, mulberry, black cherry and blueberry coat the mouth. The fine silky tannins are deceptively taut and crisp with the fresh glassy acids adding to the wine’s obvious power, focus and superb intensity. So much wine in the glass, so much to assimilate! The 2021 Paul Sauer represents a true Cape Bordeaux blend masterclass once again from Abrie Beeslaar! Drink from 2025 to 2050+.
97/100 Tim Atkin
This is the last release that will be presented to the market by departing winemaker Abrie Beeslaar and he's going out on a high. Partnering Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Merlot and 13% Cabernet Franc, with ageing in new French oak, it's leafy, floral and refined, showing plenty of underlying structure, cassis and red berry fruit and sculpted tannins. Classy stuff. Drink from 2026-40
Morellino di Scansano Riserva 2021
Morellino di Scansano Riserva 2021
Deep and bright ruby. Olfactory impact of blackberry and blueberry jam, blackcurrant and mint; it opens on scents of Mediterranean scrub, blood orange, tobacco and black pepper. The entry into the mouth is fresh and tasty; it shows a dynamic structure, imbued with a beautiful freshness in which the fine tannic texture constitutes an excellent base for evolving for a long time in the bottle. Very persistent on citrus notes.
Glenelly Estate Reserve 2016 Jeroboam (3L)
Glenelly Estate Reserve 2015 is the signature red blend of Glenelly. It combines the rich and savoury character of the Syrah (pepper and spices) with Cabernet Sauvignon (blackberries, cherries and floral spices) and with touches of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. The blend is different with every vintage.
Glenelly Estate Reserve 2015 is a Jeroboam, which is also known as a double Magnum, basically 4 standard bottles, 3 Litres in total.
Donkiesbaai Grenache Blanc 2022
The Donkiesbaai Grenache Blanc 2022 has gorgeous stone fruit & floral perfume that fills the glass.
An alluring nose of orange blossom perfume is followed by white peach and a spicy hint of pickled ginger. Delicately structured and crisply dry on the palate, the soft and refined fruit follows through onto the palate, showing peach ice tea, citrus fruit and a hint of caramel, that is rounded off with an elegant floral finish.
Platter 92 pts
Donkiesbaai Steen 2023
The Donkiesbaai Steen 2023 has a beautiful complexity of aromas reveal themselves on the nose: candied lemon peel, pineapple, honeysuckle, beeswax, cream and shortbread. On the palate, lively acidity carries the fruit, with texture and layers of flavour expanding on the palate. A clean yet mouthwatering finish.
The Steen is made up of three components: 75% is fermented and then matured in a combination of new and seasoned 500l French oak
barrels. 15% is fermented spontaneously and matured on the lees in concrete eggs. Bâtonnage is done monthly for textural mouthfeel.
DWWA Silver
