Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Duncan Savage, the winemaker at Cape Point, started his own label in 2011, focusing on small parcels of vines with strong coastal influence or from high-altitude sites. His Savage Red is a blend of syrah (67 percent) with grenache, cinsaut and touriga nacional. This is formidable wine, capturing the distinctive savor of Cape grapes and transforming what is often presented as rusticity (or, sometimes, ashen bitterness) into elegant notes of saddle leather. The wine feels cool; in a blind tasting, it brought to mind the coastal breezes that are such an asset to Cape viticulture, and so rarely preserved in the bottle. The fruit tastes of fresh red berries, bold, then tight, peppery and floral in the end. It’s a refreshing take on the Cape and is bound to turn some heads.
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Wine Spectator
Very suave, with lightly mulled plum, cherry and blackberry fruit flavors carried by substantial but silky tannins, while additional anise, blood orange and incense notes fill in through the finish. There's ample flesh here, but this stays very refined throughout, revealing a mouthwatering echo that hangs on beautifully. Syrah, Grenache, Cinsault and Touriga Nacional. Drink now through 2022.
With bold fruit flavors and accents of sweet spice, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre form the base of the classic Rhône Red Blend, while Carignan, Cinsault and Counoise often come in to play. Though they originated from France’s southern Rhône Valley, with some creative interpretation, Rhône blends have also become popular in other countries. Somm Secret—Putting their own local spin on the Rhône Red Blend, those from Priorat often include Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. In California, it is not uncommon to see Petite Sirah make an appearance.
With an important wine renaissance in full swing, impressive red and white bargains abound in South Africa. The country has a particularly long and rich history with winemaking, especially considering its status as part of the “New World.” In the mid-17th century, the lusciously sweet dessert wines of Constantia were highly prized by the European aristocracy. Since then, the South African wine industry has experienced some setbacks due to the phylloxera infestation of the late 1800s and political difficulties throughout the following century.
Today, however, South Africa is increasingly responsible for high-demand, high-quality wines—a blessing to put the country back on the international wine map. Wine production is mainly situated around Cape Town, where the climate is generally warm to hot. But the Benguela Current from Antarctica provides brisk ocean breezes necessary for steady ripening of grapes. Similarly, cooler, high-elevation vineyard sites throughout South Africa offer similar, favorable growing conditions.
South Africa’s wine zones are divided into region, then smaller districts and finally wards, but the country’s wine styles are differentiated more by grape variety than by region. Pinotage, a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault, is the country’s “signature” grape, responsible for red-fruit-driven, spicy, earthy reds. When Pinotage is blended with other red varieties, like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah or Pinot Noir (all commonly vinified alone as well), it is often labeled as a “Cape Blend.” Chenin Blanc (locally known as “Steen”) dominates white wine production, with Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc following close behind.