Winemaker Notes
With nuanced and complexed flavors, our renowned De Toren Fusion V wine pairs exceptionally well with perfectly tender grilled or roast lamb, with garlic, rosemary, and a hint of honey lemon.
Blend: 51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Cabernet Franc, 13% Malbec, 10% Merlot, 7% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Deep, brooding scents of black plum, cherry and cassis form the soul of this beautiful, richly concentrated wine. Plenty of licorice, cigar-box spice and bittersweet cocoa ride atop the fruit core, while notes of green peppercorn, leather and tobacco flesh out the midpalate and flourish on the finish. The crushed-velvet texture offers ample tannic grip and balancing acidity to keep everything in harmony. While it's hard to resist now, this should shine from 2023–2028.
Editors' Choice -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Fusion V is composed of 51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Cabernet Franc, 13% Malbec, 10% Merlot and 7% Petit Verdot. From the first sniff, you get the impression that this is a serious wine, with aromas of lush dark berries, currant, cassis, touches of lavender and an undercurrent of oak spices that flows from the glass. Full-bodied, the palate shows great focus and finesse with a velvety power across the mid-palate and well-integrated oak tones that connect to flavors of dark chocolate. It displays bold, dark fruit expressions on the finish, along with grippy tannins that will last for more than a decade.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
South Africa’s most famous wine-producing district, Stellenbosch, surrounds the historic town with the same name; fine winemaking here dates back to the late 1600s. Its valleys of granite, sandstone and alluvial loam soils between the towering blue-grey mountains of Stellenbosch, Simonsberg and Helderberg have the capacity to produce beautiful wines from many varieties. The climate is warm Mediterranean, tempered by the cool Atlantic air of nearby False Bay.
Perhaps most well-known for its Pinotage and Bordeaux blends, Stellenbosch also produces noteworthy wines from Syrah, Chenin blanc, Chardonnay and Sauvignon blanc. The district’s wards—Banghoek, Bottelary, Devon Valley, Jonkershoek Valley, Papegaaiberg, Polkadraai Hills and Simonsberg-Stellenbosch—all produce distinctive wines from vines with relatively low yields.