Winemaker Notes
This wine is young, fresh, and exuberant. Chunky plum and dark fruit flavors with a creamy texture and a long, sappy, black-fruited finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
There’s a cool purity to this cabernet (which includes 15 percent shiraz); it comes through in the dark blue fruit propped up by firm grape-skin tannins and a freshening acidity. It’s dense without being overly ripe, a balance that intrigued me each time I returned to it.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
Flanked by majestic mountains on either side, the Paarl district is a valley whose most valuable water source is the Berg River. While sometimes during dry and hot summers, the vineyards in the valley need supplemental irrigation, those vineyards on the eastern slopes where water retention is better, aren't irrigated.
Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinotage, Shiraz, Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc enjoy great success in Paarl.