Bordeaux blends at 10: SA holds its own

Earlier this year, a tasting titled “South Africa’s New Wave Tasting – Ten Years On” was held in London, where various wine professionals revisited the wines of the so-called young guns who caused such a stir a decade ago. The results were widely considered underwhelming, with the group average for even the best-performing wines typically falling below 95 points (see here). This prompted the question: would South Africa’s more established, Bordeaux-style labels stand up better a decade after vintage?

To explore this, private collector and Winemag.co.za reader Ryan Coetzee convened a comparative tasting featuring 12 prominent South African examples alongside four classed growths from Bordeaux. The wines were arranged into four flights of four, each flight comprising three South African wines and one Bordeaux, tasted blind with labels concealed.

The pouring order was as follows:

Flight One
1. Stark Condé Oude Nektar 2015
2. Keets First Verse 2015
3. Kanonkop Paul Sauer 2015
4. Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion 2015

Flight Two
1. Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse 2015
2. Thelema Rabelais 2015
3. Meerlust Rubicon 2015
4. Warwick Trilogy 2015

Flight Three
1. MR Compostella 2015
2. Tokara Director’s Reserve 2015
3. Chateau Leoville Las Cases 2015
4. Glenelly Lady May 2015

Flight Four
1. Ernie Els Signature 2015
2. Chateau Pontet Canet 2015 2015
3. Boekenhoutskloof The Journeyman 2015
4. Vilafonté Series C 2015

Here’s how I rated the wines:

97
Thelema Rabelais 2015

96
Ernie Els Signature 2015

MR Compostella 2015

95
Kanonkop Paul Sauer 2015

Stark Condé Oude Nektar 2015

94
Boekenhoutskloof The Journeyman 2015

Chateau Leoville Las Cases 2015

93
Glenelly Lady May 2015

Keets First Verse 2015

92
Meerlust Rubicon 2015

91
Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse 2015

Tokara Director’s Reserve 2015

Vriesenhof Kallista 2015 (included as a replacement for Warwick and tasted sighted)

90
Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion 2015

89
Vilafonté Series C 2015

BRETTANOMYCES
Chateau Pontet Canet 2015 2015

CORKED
Warwick Trilogy 2015

The Rabelais 2015 from Banghoek property Thelema was simply sensational. A blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Petit Verdot, it spent 20 months in 225-litre barrels, all new. The nose offered red and black berries, floral perfume, meat stock and earth, while the palate impressed with remarkable fruit depth, fresh acidity and fine, tightly woven tannins.

Whatever the circumstances, this vintage of Kanonkop shows well – I rated it 94 tasting sighted on release in July 2018, 96 in a blind tasting in January 2019, 95 in the blind tasting for Winemag.co.za’s 10-Year-Old Report earlier this year and again 95 now.

If only consistency of tasting was always so easy to achieve. Tokara Director’s Reserve 2015, awarded 95 by the panel in the 10-Year-Old Report, appeared broader and more mellow this time – a reminder that scores are merely snapshots in time.

To my mind, Ernie Els Signature, MR de Compostella and all the Cabernet and Cabernet-based wines from Stark-Condé remain among the finest in the country, a view pleasingly reinforced by this tasting.

The Bordeaux wines, however, were more perplexing. La Mission Haut-Brion showed as overly ripe and soft – unsurprising, given its declared alcohol of 15%. Once the identities were revealed, I felt I had slightly underscored Pichon Longueville Comtesse 2015, having mistaken its elegance and restraint for modesty. Leoville Las Cases proved a slow-burner, taking ages to open up, while spoilage yeast Brettanomyces rendered the Pontet-Canet undrinkable for me.

The Warwick Trilogy was unfortunately badly corked, but our host had a bottle of Vriesenhof Kallista on hand, which we tasted sighted. It showed the low-level Brett that used to slightly blemish the wines of this cellar, yet was far from unfit for consumption.

As for Vilafonté Series C, it appeared sweet and a little hot. Current winemaker Chris de Vries only joined the operation in late 2016, and I’ve long felt that it’s under his stewardship that this wine has truly come into its own.