Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A textural and well-balanced red with red berry, earth, cedar and baking spice aromas. Medium to full body with fine, firm tannins. It has a powdery texture on the center-palate and juicy cherries and red berries intermingling with the spices, bringing much vitality and poise. Focused long finish. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Starting with tart red fruits and a dusty mineral essence, the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon offers notes of black cherry and spiced plum. Medium-bodied and with a ripe, fresh fruit condition, the palate expresses fine-grained tannins with a dusty mineral tension. It ends with a long, spicy finish with persistent pencil lead essences. It's a well-made, sturdy wine that produced 72,000 bottles from wine that rested in 50% new French oak barrels for two years.
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.
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.