Klein Constantia Estate Red 2020
Klein Constantia Estate Red 2020 is deep ruby red in appearance. A lively nose bursting with flavours of strawberries, raspberries, red peppercorns with a delicate oak spice. Full-bodied with dense grippy tannins and a powerful mid palate, flavours of red fruit follow with an elegant backbone. The palate is refined and elegant, ending with a long rich finish.
Grape variety 69 % Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Malbec & 3% Petit Verdot
93/100 James Suckling
Pio Cesare – Barbera d’Alba Doc “Fides” Vigna Mosconi 2019
Raats Red Jasper 2022
Raats Red Jasper 2022, is a blend of 49% Cabernet Franc, 35% Malbec, 9% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3.5% Merlot and 3.5% Petit Verdot, we encounter an incredibly plush, luscious, approachable red blend brimming with earthy red berry fruits, aromatics of violets and sweet lavender, dried baking herbs and subtle notes of graphite and lead pencil. On the palate, the wine is medium bodied and plush, soft textured but also fleshy, creamy and deliciously accessible boasting toasty notes of black currant, damson plum and sour black cherries. A very compact and complete wine on release, this cuvee might not rise to the heights of the 2021, but in a funny kind of way, consumers desiring instant enjoyment now may actually love the 2022’s creamy opulence more than the bracing acid structure of the 2021. This wine simply gets better and better every vintage. Well done Bruwer!
93/100 GSMW (review c/o.)
(Wine Safari Score: 93/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Food suggestions Venison dishes / lazy-aged sirloin or rib-eye / Hard cheese
Constantia Glen FIVE 2022
TASTING NOTE
This wine has a vibrant and youthful dark ruby colour. On the nose, pronounced aromas of Morello cherries, ripe blackcurrant, and plums are elevated by a delicate fragrance of violets and dried herbs. Underlying savoury notes of tobacco pouch, cedar, and graphite add complexity and intrigue.
On the palate, the wine is rich and concentrated, with bold dark fruit flavours that are beautifully balanced by this blend’s inherent freshness. The fine-grained tannins provide a mouth-coating texture and wonderful persistence that creates a lingering finish. This wine is beautifully structured, showcasing a harmonious blend of dark fruit, elegance, and finesse. The wine comes across as tightly wound in its youth, but with all the potential for incredible ageing potential.
TECHNICAL DATA
A carefully crafted blend of 28% Cabernet Franc, 28% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Merlot, 14% Petit Verdot and 9% Malbec, matured for 19 months in 80% new and 20% secondfill 225 litre French oak
barrels. Following barrel maturation, the wine received a very light filtration before making its way into bottle on 12 December 2023. With no fining agents used during the production of this wine, a harmless sediment may occur during maturation in the bottle. This is a classic and bold vintage of the Constantia Glen FIVE, which will continue to age and develop admirably in bottle for up to 10 to 15 years from harvest, under correct cellaring conditions.
Cavalli Warlord 2021
A Bordeaux blend consisting of 63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Malbec and 16% Petit Verdot. Notes of fresh plum, black-forest cake and cedar spice. The wine shows a delicate mid-palate with soft, rounded tannins that complement a well-balanced acidity.
Exuding luxury and elegance, named to embody the very essence of power and prestige, this Bordeaux-style blend consisting of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, and Malbec, was one of the first wines ever produced at Cavalli Estate.
Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon 2021
95% Cabernet Sauvignon
4% Cabernet Franc
1% Petit Verdot
Tasting Notes
Colour and condition:
Deep brick red hue; bright condition.
Nose:
An intense array of primary fruit notes, including blueberries, raspberries, red currant, mulberry, plum and musk, as well as a touch of nutmeg, cinnamon and clove spices. Cabernet Sauvignon’s classic floral note of violets adds volume. The complexities in the background include cedar, tobacco and tar, the “cigar box” combination, plus some light toasty oak.
Palate:
The theme of the red and dark fruits continues, with black currant, cherry, blueberry, mulberry and dark jube flavours filling the mouth. They sit over a medium to full body, with bright acidity and soft, well integrated, svelte, almost chocolate-like, tannin. The wine is long and finishes with cedar and toasty oak, with perhaps a touch of star anise.
Meerlust Rubicon 2021 Gift Tin
Tasting Notes
Very youthful colour, deep and dense with almost purple hue. Quintessential Rubicon nose with violets, ripe plum, cedar wood, fennel, and intense spiciness. Typical liquorice notes also evident on the nose. Still young and intense, the palate is full bodied, structured but packed with fresh dark fruit and rounded tannins and seamlessly integrated oak.
Blend Information
48% Cabernet Sauvignon, 46% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot
Accolades
2024 Platter's Wine Guide - 5 Stars
Ageing Potential
Ageing potential of 10 - 20 years, provided wine is stored in ideal cellar conditions.
Raats MR de Compostella 2020
Never made with exactly the same blend in any two vintages, the 2020 is a classic Cape Bordeaux assemblage of 30% Cabernet Franc, 28% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Malbec, 16% Merlot and 5% Petit Verdot with a total production of only 1,000 x 6. The wine displays a real intensity in the glass with a ruby red rim and a red / black plum heart. The aromatics are vibrant and fabulously perfumed, bursting from the glass with expressive notes of red and black berry fruits, black currant, raspberry, red and black cherry, before notes of earthy blueberry emerge with suggestions of pressed violets, lavender, sweet sandalwood, star anise and graphite spice. On the palate, the vintage’s regal elegance emerges with exhilarating acids framing the plush opulent red and back berry fruits, saline cassis, tart red cherry and a blueberry confectionary generosity.
98/100 Greg Sherwood MW
SHAW + SMITH Adelaide Hills Shiraz 2020
Floral aromas and a touch of cherries. Integrated soft tannins and a graphite-like earthiness together with red fruits and spice notes of dried herbs on the palate gives this wine great depth and complexity.
94/100 Deano da Vino - Complex, with layers of earthiness, cigar box, and dark broody cherries and a hint of mixed spice. Drinking superbly now, or can last 5 years
Château Montaiguillon, Montagne Saint-Emilion 2020
Montaiguillon’s 2020 is another resounding success, continuing a string of excellent vintages at the estate. It is a deep ruby colour with notes of spiced plums, cassis and blackberries on the nose. There’s a savoury, graphite note woven through the juicy, sumptuous palate. Its rounded tannins are already integrated with the plump fruit, and the finish has a fresh, balanced length, the likes of which you’d expect from wines with much bigger price tags.
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.
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.
