Cape Bordeaux Red Blend Report 2019

By , 9 July 2019

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4

Logo-1The fifth annual Cape Bordeaux Red Blend Report is now out.

65 entries were received from 53 producers for this year’s competition and these were tasted blind (labels out of sight) by the three-person panel, scoring done according to the 100-point quality scale.

The top 10 wines (with rating alongside) are as follows:

Babylonstoren Nebukadnesar 2017 – 92
Botanica Arboretum 2017 – 94
Eikendal Classique 2017 – 92
Leipzig Grand Master 2017 – 93
Morgenster Estate Reserve 2014 – 93
Morgenster Lourens River Valley 2014 – 92
MR de Compostella 2016 – 92
Raats Family Wines Jasper Red Blend 2017 – 93
Remhoogte Sir Thomas Cullinan 2015 – 93
Vrede en Lust Boet Erasmus 2016 – 92

Botanica, as the producer of the wine judged best overall, won a new 300-litre Selection barrel worth €903 (equivalent to R14 330 at the time of writing) from Tonnellerie Sylvain.

To read the report in full, including key findings, tasting notes for the top 10 and scores on the 100-point quality scale for all wines entered, download the following: Cape Bordeaux Red Blend Report 2019

To view a photo album from yesterday’s announcement function, click here.

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4 comment(s)

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    Gareth | 17 July 2019

    Hi Christian and team,

    An interesting trend that I’ve picked up is that the Rubicon almost always seems to suffer in terms of scoring in a blind tasting. It’s amazing the effect a label has.

    Something I’d like some additional tasting feedback on is the Constantia Glen 5. It’s consistently a 93/94 in Platter’s and with 2015 being a great vintage for the Cape I was expecting big things. What did the judges pick up that they didn’t like?

      Christian Eedes | 17 July 2019

      Hi Gareth, My feeling about Rubicon is that incumbent winemaker Chris Williams is very much focused on refinement and the wine can look a little underdone relative to its peers in a big line-up, especially in a challenging vintage like 2016. As for the Constantia Glen Five, the panel felt that the wine was looking unduly developed (even a little volatile) in this particular tasting.

    Kevin R | 16 July 2019

    Raats will be amused? with that result…

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