Winemaker Notes
Blend: 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Cabernet Franc, 4% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Lady May is mostly Cabernet Sauvignon with splashes of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. The nose opens with a juicy and generously structured frame with oak essences and spiced black fruit elements. Medium to full-bodied, the palate provides sweet oak flavors with a firm tannic edge before melting away to reveal a fine mineral tension and bright acidity. This beauty has plenty of life left in it and will have no problem aging for a couple more decades. Bravo!
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James Suckling
Intense aromas of ripe black fruit, pine cones, cedar wood, cocoa and wet stones. Plush and broad-shouldered, with full body, dusty tannins and a velvety texture. Generous and complex, with ripe dark fruit on offer and a lingering finish. A blend of 90% cabernet sauvignon, 6% cabernet franc and 4% petit verdot. Sustainable. Drink or hold.
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Wine Enthusiast
Raspberry jam and rosemary aromas form an attractive nose. The wine's soft but firm tannins support notes of raspberry, cherry, herbs and smoke. Toasted oak flavors are integrated in this enjoyable full-bodied red.
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.