Winemaker Notes
Lady May is Glenelly's flagship estate wine, paying tribute to the pedigree of its legendary owner, May de Lencquesaing. Crafted from the best Bordeaux components of 2019, it reveals rich dark berry aromas with hints of mocha and cedar on the nose. The palate offers sweet fruit flavors, smooth tannins, and a long, refined finish.
Blend: 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet franc, 10% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Youthful and pretty nose of fresh blackberries, fresh plums, cocoa, tobacco and pine cones. Elegant and beautifully framed, with fine and precise tannins, a medium to full body and a long, fresh finish. 75% cabernet sauvignon, 10% cabernet franc, 5% petit verdot and 10% merlot. Drink from 2025.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This is the vintage that broke the dreaded drought period, and this lady comes out singing in the much-needed rain. The Glenelly 2019 Stellenbosch Lady May is the estate's top wine. It represents a blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 10% Merlot and 5% Petit Verdot. Lady May is generally 70% to 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, but that number comes down in 2019, as the team looked for optimal ripeness. Because of the relatively cooler conditions, and the fact that light radiation stays high in South Africa after veraison, this wine is quite rich and vertical in intensity with licorice-like flavors. In fact, the winemaking team sought to tone it down a bit by reducing some of the new oak. The results are focused and sharp, and what Lady May shows in this vintage is a pretty sense of freshness with elegantly chalky tannins.
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Wine Enthusiast
A juicy and delicious Cabernet Sauvignon-focused blend from Stellenbosch that starts with light floral notes and hints of graphite. The finely textured palate delivers pure plum and dark cherry flavors, alongside herbal notes. A sturdy structure suggests this wine will age. Drink through 2035.
Cellar Selection -
Tasting Panel
The 2019 Lady May is comprised of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 10% Merlot and 5% Petit Verdot, aged in 300-liter French oak, 40% new, for 12 months, blended before another 12 months in 75% new oak. It has quite a potent cassis and peppermint scented bouquet, just a touch of licorice coming through with aeration - certainly more towards the more opulent style of a Stellenbosch Bordeaux blend. The palate is very smooth on the entry, with succulent tannins imparting more flashiness than previous vintages. Rounded in texture and lightly spiced with touches of white pepper and clove, plenty of richness and structure is loaded onto the back end with a graphite-infused aftertaste. It will require three to four years in bottle. Very fine.
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Wine Spectator
Chewy tannins are integrated with a core of ripe black currant and blackberry fruit in this structured, medium-bodied red. A fragrant underpinning of smoldering cedar, tobacco and mocha notes gains momentum on the lingering finish. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. Drink now through 2030.
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.