Jozua Joubert trained as a winemaker, the last cellar he worked at being Warwick in Stellenbosch, before returning to run the family farm Karibib after his father died in 2010. Located in Polkaaidraai, there are 56ha under vineyard and Joubert supplies the likes of Alheit Vineyards, Craven Wines and Radford Dale. Joubert says he “missed the cellar” and from 2014 started making both a Sauvignon Blanc and a Pinot Noir (out of the same Devon Valley cellar as utilized by Lukas van Loggerenberg) under the label Solitary Wine – Single Vineyard Projects. Tasting notes and ratings for the current releases as follows:
Too wit too woo.
Solitary Owl House Sauvignon Blanc 2017
Price: R95
30% fermented in barrel, four months on the lees. A subtle and alluring nose – fynbos and dried grass overlay lime, white peach and even a little apricot. The palate is full-bodied and thick-textured but also possesses really punchy acidity while the finish is long and savoury. Most accomplished. Total production: 1 980 bottles. Alcohol: 13%.
Editor’s rating: 92/100.
Solitary Morning Bell Pinot Noir 2016
Price: R220
From a block planted to Champagne clone PN 52, grapes originally sold to Distell for the production of Pongrácz. One-third whole-bunch fermented, matured for 10 months in old 225-litre barrels. Red and black fruit, olive, earth, a certain bloodiness plus some fresh herbs and spice in the background. Rich and full, quite heavily extracted so that the wine is at once smooth textured and quite drying on the finish. An “interesting pour” is how Joubert refers to it and that it most certainly is. Total production: 1 260 bottles. Alcohol: 13.5%.
Editor’s rating: 89/100.
Find our South African wine ratings database here.
Built.
Hugo Truter of Wellington-based Truter Family Wines came across single vineyard of Grenache Blanc some 30 years old at the top of the Piekenierskloof Pass a few years ago, and made wine from it in 2016.
Only a single barrel was made, the equivalent of 300 bottles. Fermentation occurred via inoculation and maturation in second-fill French oak lasted eight months.
The nose shows lime, lemon, apple, green melon, plenty of leesy character – think lanonlin and struck match – as well as some spice. The palate is super-concentrated with driving acidity and a savoury finish. It’s rich and full, thick textured but not overly so – old-school but delicious. Price: R495 per bottle.
Editor’s rating: 93/100.
Find our South African wine ratings database here.
Heavy calibre.
The 2015 vintage of the Cape Bordeaux Red Blend that is Paul Sauer from Stellenbosch property had not been released when the winemag.co.za panel convened in mid-June to taste the category (see here) but it has subsequently become commercially available and a review is therefore due.
My assessment of the Kanonkop Paul Sauer 2015 was necessarily going to have to take place sighted rather than blind but given that this is just about an iconic wine and the 2015 vintage is much heralded, how to put it into some kind of meaningful context?
I opted to taste it next to Meerlust Rubicon 2015, a wine that received a 94-point rating when I tasted it sighted (see here) and an 88-point rating from the winemag.co.za panel when tasted blind (the point has been made before that wines very often score lower in blind tastings than they do in sighted tastings – removing all knowledge of pedigree in order to ensure some kind of impartiality is the key reason for subjecting wines to blind tastings but judges do tend to be more severe in their judgements).
“Curated” is an over-used word at the moment but I guess the biggest insight about drinking these two wines side by side was just how carefully curated they are, both so typical of their respective house styles, these established over decades, the maiden vintage of Rubicon having been 1980 and that of Paul Sauer the year after.
Kanonkop Paul Sauer 2015 is a blend of 70% Cab, 15% Cab Franc and 15% Merlot. Alcohol: 14.47%. Matured for 24 months in 225-litre French oak barrels, 100% new. Wine Cellar price: R595 a bottle (buy now). Meerlust Rubicon 2015 is a blend of 61% Cab, 23% Merlot, 12% Cab Franc and 4% Petit Verdot. Alcohol: 14%. Matured for 18 months in 300-litre French oak barrels, 66% new. Wine Cellar price: R375 a bottle (buy now).
The Paul Sauer 2015 has a terrifically complex and decadent nose – red and black fruit, violets, incense, earth, vanilla, cinnamon and other oak spice. The palate is rich and broad but very well balanced – succulent fruit and nicely grippy tannins. There’s a noble rusticity about it, which is to say it’s none too polished, but this is a character which has always marked this wine and always will.
The Rubicon 2015, by contrast, looked leaner and cleaner, more focused and with a lovely cool quality to it. Dark fruit, crushed herbs and a hint of reduction. Less full bodied, snappy acidity, finer tannins, the finish long and intensely savoury.
So what to score the Paul Sauer? Two points: 1) I found it a tad more forceful/less elegant than the excellent 2014 which rated 95 (see here); 2) while there are terroir and/or stylistic differences between Paul Sauer 2015 and Rubicon 2015, there’s nothing to choose between them in terms of sheer quality. In light of these considerations, I’m compelled to rate the Paul Sauer 2015 94 points, the same as the Rubicon 2015.
One last thought on these two wines. Part of the reason that they both have such a devoted public following is that they have stood the test of time – they are serious brands but also intrinsically serious wines. When reviewing them sighted, it is perhaps beholden on the critic to factor this in – history and background is worth a point or two extra. That said, while they are among South Africa’s best, I’m not sure they are the very best bound, as they are, by their respective traditions.
Marelise Niemann
Marelise Niemann of Momento Wines recently became a mother but this doesn’t seem to be cramping her style in the slightest when it comes to winemaking. Tasting notes and ratings for the upcoming new releases as follows (prices to be confirmed):
Momento Chenin Blanc Verdlho 2017
81% Chenin Blanc (from the Swartland and Bot River) and 19% Verdelho (from Voor Paardeberg). Matured for 10 months in old oak. Citrus, apple, peach and pineapple on the nose while the palate shows concentrated fruit and particularly snappy acidity before some tannic grip on the finish – funky in the sense of being slightly strange but oh, so cool. Alcohol: 13%.
Editor’s rating: 92/100.
Momento Grenache Gris 2017
New. From a Voor Paardeberg vineyard. Seven-day skin contact before fermentation. An alluring nose with top notes of flowers and herbs before citrus, peach and green apple. The palate is all of a piece with lovely fruit expression, a great line of acidity and long, dry finish. A really super effort from this alternative variety and definitely one for the early adopters to seek out. Alcohol: 12.7%.
Editor’s rating: 95/100.
Momento Grenache 2017
90% of grapes from Swartland and 10% from Voor Paardeberg (Bot River no longer in the mix). The nose has a floral top note before black cherry plus a hint of reduction in the background while the palate displays plenty of sweet fruit offset by bright acidity, the tannins quite soft. A cheerful drop but doesn’t seem to have quite the same structure as previous vintages. Alcohol: 14%.
Editor’s rating: 89/100.
Momento Tinta Barocca 2017
Grapes from Bot River, Stellenbosch and Voor Paardeberg. A complex nose of red and black berries, fresh herbs, earth and spice. The palate has good fruit concentration, fresh acidity and nicely grippy tannins – lovely shape and structure, lots going on.
Editor’s rating: 92/100.
Find our South African wine ratings database here.
Gabriëlskloof in Bot River sees the accomplished Peter-Allan Finlayson incumbent as winemaker having married owner Bernhard Heyns’s daughter, Nicolene. The Landscape Series of wines is made from the property’s top vineyards but also incorporating grapes from a few old-vine sites from elsewhere in some instances. Tasting notes and ratings for the new releases as follows:
The Landscape Series Magdalena 2017
Price: R275
60% Franschhoek Semillon, 40% Bot River Sauvignon Blanc. 20% matured in amphorae. An exotic and quite heady nose – a fennel top note before blackcurrant, pineapple, yellow peach , earth and spice. The palate is opulent with massive fruit concentration balanced by tangy acidity. Attention-grabbing stuff. Alcohol: 14%.
Editor’s rating: 92/100.
The Landscape Series Elodie 2017
Price: R275
From Chenin Blanc, 60% Paardeberg, 40% Durbanville. A very forthcoming nose – a herbal top note before orange and stone fruit plus some reduction and yeasty complexity while the palate is rich and seemingly sweet, nicely coated acidity ensuring drinkability. Alcohol: 13%.
Editor’s rating: 92/100.
The Landscape Series Syrah on Sandstone 2016
Price: R350
From own grapes. 40% whole-bunch fermentation. The nose shows a floral top note before red and black berries plus cracked pepper. The palate has a sumptuousness about it with plenty of concentrated fruit and fine tannins. Alcohol: 14.5%.
Editor’s rating: 92/100.
The Lanscape Series Syrah on Shale 2016
Price: R350
From own grapes. 40% whole-bunch fermentation. Red fruit, white pepper and some cured meat-like character. Medium-bodied with pure fruit, fresh acidity and fine tannins, the finish long and savoury. That much more refined and intricate than its counterpart above. Alcohol: 14%.
Editor’s rating: 93/100.
The Landscape Series Cabernet Franc 2016
Price: R350
Matured in 500-litre barrels for 16 months, 40% new. An enticing nose with top notes of violets and crushed leaves before red and black fruit, earth and spice (less overtly “green” than the 2015). Lovely succulent fruit, lively acidity and nicely ripe tannins. Absolutely delicious!
Editor’s rating: 93/100.
Mention must also be made of the Bordeaux-style red blend called simply The Blend 2016 and the Syrah 2016 under the standard label, both of which sell for R105 a bottle. The Blend rated 89 on the 100-point quality scale in the recent Cape Bordeaux Red Blend Report and the Syrah is also terrific, being light and fresh with a gently savoury finish – editor’s rating: 90/100.
When it comes to the Crystallum label, Peter-Allan Finlayson specializes in the two grapes traditionally associated with Burgundy, namely Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and his 2017s consisting of six wines make for a very accomplished portfolio (prices to be confirmed).
Crystallum The Agnes Chardonnay 2017
Grapes sourced mainly Overberg but also Greyton, Hemel en Aarde Ridge and Vermaaklikheid. Matured for eight months in French oak, 10% new. An inviting nose of pear, lime, lemon, orange and some yeasty complexity while the palate is generous with plenty of upfront fruit without being sweet or ingratiating. Total production: 16 872 bottles. Alcohol: 13.5%.
Editor’s rating: 91/100.
Go hard on the Chard.
Crystallum Clay Shales Chardonnay 2017
Grapes from the Hemel en Aarde Ridge. Matured for 10 months in old oak. Pear, white peach and citrus plus a hint of reduction on the nose while the palate shows startling fruit purity – concentrated without being weighty, the acidity fresh, the finish long and pithy. Grows ever more precise with each passing vintage. Total production: 2 387 bottle. Alcohol: 13.5%.
Editor’s rating: 94/100.
Crystallum Peter Max Pinot Noir 2017
Wine Cellar price: R260
Grapes from various sites. 40% whole-bunch fermentation. The nose shows some rose petal perfume plus fresh herbs before red cherry. Plenty of juicy, pure fruit and very fine, soft tannins – impossible not to like. Total production: 16 769 bottles. Alcohol: 14%.
Editor’s rating: 90/100.
Crystallum Mabalel Pinot Noir 2017
Wine Cellar price: R485
Grapes from Elandskloof. 10% whole bunch fermentation. A properly complex nose showing red and black fruit, some musk, earth, spice as well as just a hint of reduction. The palate, meanwhile, is tightly wound with pure fruit and fine tannins, the finish long and savoury – intricate and refined. Total production: 3 578 bottles. Alcohol: 14%.
Editor’s rating: 92/100.
Crystallum Cuvée Cinema 2017
Wine Cellar price: R485
Grapes from Hemel en Aarde Ridge. 60% whole-bunch fermentation. Black cherry, plum and a certain ripe orange quality to go with some earthiness and a little reduction. Full bodied and quite forceful – dense fruit, fresh acidity and nicely grippy tannins. Comes across as rather decadent. Total production: 5 877 bottles. Alcohol: 14%.
Editor’s rating: 92/100.
Crystallum Bona Fide 2017
Wine Cellar price: R485
Grapes from the Hemel en Aarde Valley. 60% whole-bunch fermentation. A slightly wild but entirely captivating nose – dark fruit, earth, spice, musk and fresh herbs all combine to good effect. Rich and broad but not listless – nice fresh acidity and tannic grip – while the finish is long and savoury. A lot going on. Total production: 2 353 bottles. Alcohol: 13.5%
Editor’s rating: 93/100.
Find our South African wine ratings database here.
The first bottling of wines under the Thorne & Daughter label by John Seccombe date from 2013 and the subsequent refinement of vision over time plus the excellent vintage that was 2017 sees him now releasing his strongest set of wines to date (prices to be confirmed).
Cat’s Cradle 2017
New. From a Paardeberg Chenin Blanc vineyard planted in the late 1970s. Pear, white peach and citrus plus a little hay on the nose. The palate shows excellent fruit concentration and driving acidity before a very persistent, saline finish. Strikingly clean and poised. How many more examples of top-end Chenin can the market bear? Who cares when they’re as good as this? Alcohol: 13%.
Editor’s rating: 95/100.
Man in the Moon 2017
New. From Stellenbosch Clairette Blanche, 50% was fermented on the skins. Straw yellow in colour, the nose shows a top note of potpourri before naartjie, lemon, yellow apple and a slight earthiness. Lovely fruit expression combines with tangy acidity, the finish possessing some phenolic grip. Lean, fresh and very tasty – not too quirky for those wary of “orange wines”. Alcohol: 12%.
Editor’s rating: 92/100.
Tin Soldier 2017
From Swartland Semillon Gris fermented on the skins. Pale bronze in colour, the nose is not particularly aromatic but shows hints of red apple, fennel and spice plus a little reduction. Light, fresh and savoury on the palate – lovely texture without being weighty or greasy. An understated, very pleasing wine. Alcohol: 12.5%.
Editor’s rating: 93/100.
Paper Kite 2017
From old-vine Swartland Semillon. A subtle and elusive nose of white peach, naartjie and dried herbs. The palate shows good fruit concentration and bright acidity before a long and savoury finish, a touch of tannic grip adding interest. Nicely observed on the part of Seccombe and again an absolute pleasure to drink. Alcohol: 12.5%.
Editor’s rating: 94/100.
Thoroughbred.
Rocking Horse Cape White Blend 2017
23% Roussanne, 22% Chenin Blanc, 21% Semillon, 17% Clairette Blanche and 17% Chardonnay sourced from across the Western Cape. The nose shows white and yellow fruit, dried herbs, spice and a little earthiness. The palate has a little extra padding than Secommbe’s other 2017s (alcohol is 13.5%) but this is very much in its favour – it’s flavour-packed and quite luscious without being ingratiating. The overall impression is one of rich but very well balanced wine – powerful , precise and persisitent.
Editor’s rating: 96/100.
A rating for Wanderer’s Heart 2017 will appear in the Signature Red Blend Report due to be released shortly.
Find our South African wine ratings database here.
I’m wondering why I find it easier to write about wines that I don’t much like than about those I love. The question is no doubt cropping up now because I’m writing (for the next Platter’s South African Wine Guide) many more notes than usual, and that’s being my experience. Making tasting notes is never a source of pleasure or satisfaction to me, in fact; despite the pleasure and satisfaction I get from drinking the stuff, I much prefer writing about what I think of as the cultural side of a bottle of wine – people, place, time – to trying to describe the contents.
But at Platter time I have to conjure up any number of brief descriptions. Hence my noticing what I mentioned: that I find it more difficult to write vaguely usefully – and not too vapidly! – about the wines I most like. A few words about a vineyard or a detail of winemaking will fill a bit of the allotted space, but not enough, and such notes are anyway neutral, suitable for good or bad wines. Oh, I can pile on the qualitative adjectives, which all add up to saying that the wine is very good – but a score or star rating can do as much.
All those other adjectives, purporting to describe aromas and flavours (the sort of list that American tasting notes in particular largely consist of – the more abstruse the better), I try to avoid until I’m desperate. What’s inherently good or bad about pan-fried Asian herbs on an aroma? And when I resort to a scattering of such adjectives, I try not to give the impression of certainty and precision (unlike many tasters, more confident than I am), as I feel that would imply that another drinker of the wine is not going to come up with a remarkably different set of “organoleptic descriptors” – because I know that another drinker definitely, inevitably, justifiably, will do just that.
When there are any shortcomings in a wine, I can leap on them gratefully: too much oak; powerful alcohol giving heat on the finish; over-ripe; acid that comes in with a rush at the end, acid added to make the flabby wine give a brief illusion of freshness; shortness of finish; the taint of brettanomyces (unless it’s working happily in the wine); mercaptans (unless it’s a New Zealand sauvignon blanc); insipidity; banality; triviality. That sort of thing.
But when there are none of those failings, what to say of the crucial essence? The wine is balanced; there’s harmony or the promise of harmony; the aromas and flavours are subtle; it’s elegant – or powerfully impressive; it’s serious but still joyous; the flavours linger; there’s complexity, layers of flavour perhaps; it has matured magnificently; it will (probably) mature magnificently; it’s fresh, pure; it’s well structured – well, of course it is. Of course it is all those things. All great wines are all of those things, or most of them.
It’s like what Tolstoy says in the opening sentence of Anna Karenina: “All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
Of course, as Tolstoy knew about happy families, good wines are crucially different in their experienced details. Magnetic North Mountain Makstok is not going to be confused with Columella or with Paul Sauer or Reyneke White. But when it comes to what one can say about the marvellousness of them, it’s hard to get beyond the marvellous similarities (harmony, complexity, etc). I always want to say about the best wines: it’s all the usual good stuff, plus something magical. Something not describable – only to be communicated sensually (to a sufficiently experienced, educated palate, I would sternly add).
And once one gets to that point, it’s hard for me to understand the adding or docking of a point or two. But that’s another story, another difficulty.
Win two tickets (valued at R150 each) to the For Love of Craft Event event and a six-bottle mixed case of wine.
For the Love of Craft takes place from 17h00 to 23h00 on 27 July in Stellenbosch and is hosted by by Somm and The Woodmill Lifestyle Market. The project came about in order to promote the artisanal craftsmen of Stellenbosch – taste wines and beers that you won’t likely find on your supermarket shelf.
Wines in the mixed case include:
De Kleine Wijn Koöp Kreatuur 2017
Natte Valleij Swallow The Blend 2016
Strydom Vineyards Retro 2016
Saltare MCC Brut Nature NV
Usana Pinot Gris 2016
Vernuft Chenin Blanc 2016
To enter, all you have to do is 1) sign up for our free newsletter and 2) like the For the Love of Craft’s Facebook page.
To subscribe, click HERE.
To visit the event’s Facebook page, click HERE.
Competition not open to those under 18 years of age and closes at 17h00 on Friday 20 July. The winner will be chosen by lucky draw and notified by email. Prize does not include travel or accommodation. Existing subscribers also eligible.
winemag.co.za is pleased to announce the first annual Sweet Wine Report, the focus being on 1) Natural Sweet; 2) Noble Late Harvest; 3) Straw Wine; 4) Hanepoot and 5) Muscadel.
Wines will be tasted blind by a three-person panel consisting of Christian Eedes as chairman as well as Roland Peens and James Pietersen, both of Wine Cellar, Cape Town merchants and cellarers of fine wine.
Entries are now closed. Results will be made public on Tuesday 21 August.
To enter, you must first log in as a producer – CLICK HERE.
For the rules in full and entry form, CLICK HERE.
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