Tim James: How much power does Stellenbosch Cab need?

If you offer yourself as a wine critic there’s firstly objectivity to at least consider. It’s something only achievable once you understand your own instinctual or acquired preferences; if you don’t, you can’t even try to take them into account. There’s also, arguably, a duty to your own aesthetic (a posher way, possibly more complex, of saying preferences). If you’re offering your own judgements – unlike, say, collaborating in a guide like Platter’s – it’s easier all round, as regular readers can take your aesthetic into account.

Here, I want to say something about Stellenbosch cabernet sauvignons and cab-blends, and am approaching it by engaging (respectfully, please note) with two eminent commentators on this website: Christian Eedes and Greg Sherwood. I’ll come back to Greg. First, it’s my observation that Christian generally reveals, as he is entitled to, distinct aesthetic positions on syrah (and cinsault, grenache) vis à vis cab (and family). That is, he seems to like syrahs to be on the light side and cabs to be richer, riper and more powerful.

The preferences behind the points

Hence Christian’s notes and scores on two 2023 cab-based blends made by Abrie Beeslaar: Beeslaar The Sacrament and Kanonkop Paul Sauer. He scores both 93 points. The Sacrament he calls “linear, upright and rather elegant” and neutrally notes the declared alcohol of 14.5%. The “beautifully composed” Paul Sauer, he says, is “a touch slight” with a declared alcohol level of 13%, to be compared with the 14.47% on “the famed 2015”. Christian had given the 2022 (alc 13.5%) a score of 95, but just 93 for both the 2021 and 2020 with rather similar comments to those for the latest: the 2021 being “a bit underdone” and the 2020 “quite slight”. He is, in fact, pretty consistent in being less of an admirer of lower-alcohol Paul Sauer than most critics. I would mention, though – just saying! – that he gave Craven The Firs Syrah 97 and 96 points in the last two vintages with much the same sort of alcohol level.

I also wrote about the Beeslaar own-wine, but contrastingly. I thought it impressive, but said that “Perhaps it’s the 14.5% alcohol and the 2.2 g/L residual sugar on the Sacrament that made me demur a little, as I do about most ambitious Stellenbosch cabs and Bordeaux blends (not including Abrie’s at Kanonkop); but that’s a personal taste and opinion.”

And I certainly wouldn’t have given equal scores for The Sacrament and Paul Sauer. The Sacrament seems to me just another good Stellenbosch cab-blend – big, ripe, sweet-finishing. Paul Sauer’s ”slightness” I experience as elegance and refinement. I found the wine a little shy to begin with, but it opened up in the glass to offer a lovely true-to-type fragrance, and a genuine albeit understated fruit intensity alongside freshness, a firm and balanced structure, and a good properly dry finish. A wine of finesse I thought, with a winning modesty – in the best sense of that word.

Two elements from the tasting (held at Kanonkop) where Christian and I tasted the wine are worth recalling. Firstly, the presenters were insistent about the particular character of the Paul Sauer vineyards, especially their ability to offer genuine ripeness at a lower alcohol level than the rest of the farm can achieve. They were, rightly I’d say, proud of this, and hoped it would be a recurring feature of the wine.
Secondly, wanting to offer an example of the beneficial ageability of Paul Sauer at this sort of alcohol level, they offered us the 1997. I remember this vintage as one that helped me learn something that still informs my understanding of what Cape cab-based reds can achieve. It was a cool one, that produced much “slighter” wines than the subsequent, hot 1998. The best 1997s were elegant and unshowy – especially those that always revelled in that style, like Cordoba Crescendo and Welgemeend Estate Reserve (I drank the latter not long ago and it was still marvellous). The 1998s were showy, fruitily ripe, powerful and overtly delicious in their youth, and I think it true to say that most winelovers particularly welcomed the wines after the lighter 1997s. But a decade later, many of them were already tiring, in my experience, while the 1997s sailed on serenely. The Paul Sauer 1997, tasted a few months ago, at an alcohol level even lower than that of the “slight” 2023, is drinking superbly. I see no reason why the 2023 should not live as long and as gracefully.

In the comment Greg Sherwood posted on Christian’s report on Paul Sauer, he resolutely defended the wine and praised its lowish alcohol level. I thought he was too condescending in his suggestion that Christian was prejudging the wine because of a “difficult” vintage. Christian is as capable as Greg of not being so naïve and doesn’t need ticking off like that; furthermore, as I suggested, his comments are consistent with his previous stand on Paul Sauer and other cabs and cab blends. In fact, it’s a question around Greg’s own positions on Stellenbosch cabs and cab blends that interests me, in the light of those factors of objectivity and personal preference.

Greg said in his comment about the Paul Sauer that “This is my dream ABV level”. Now, I think you could read a lot of Greg’s writings about Cape cab and cab blends without realising that! I can’t swear to it, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen him even suggest any problem with the 14.5-15% alcohols that tend to prevail. Does he ever even mention alcohol levels and associated matters? Take his recent article about a load of 2024 cabs he tasted “en primeur”. He was typically rah-rah about it all, hugely enthusiastic about the category. (Of course one must remember that Greg has a conflict of interest to deal with – he is deeply involved in their retail prospects in the UK.) Alcohol levels are not mentioned as such, though he says that “Cabernet Sauvignon, of course, demands ample ‘hang time’ to achieve full phenolic ripeness”. Of course. Depends what you mean by ample, perhaps.

Talking of ripeness I was able to find details about only one of his (mostly as yet unreleased) top six wines, the Bellevue Reserve 2024 (“Wow! 95-97”). True, its alcohol is scarcely over 14%, but it has a residual sugar of 3.8 g/L. And it’s the residual sugar levels of many Stellenbosch cabs in alliance with alcohol levels over 14% that give the sweetness making so many of them unattractive to me. But it’s another unclassical aspect that Greg avoids mentioning in his ardour. Yet he personally seems to prefer lighter, more classic wines. Is it down to his idea of objectivity that he never indicates this preference in his Winemag notes on wines, let alone has it reflected in his scoring? Or what?

The case for lower-alc Cabernet

The above was intended as a mere intro, but the tail has wagged the dog, and now I must divert my intentions into brevity. It’s not easy finding other serious Stellenbosch cabs and cab-blends under 14% alcohol. Happily, I can at least adduce the Cabernet Sauvignon (as well as the blend) from Leeu Passant (incidentally, rated 94 by Christian), among my few favourite local versions. More radically, there is Waterford Cab. The current release seems to be 2019, at R450 (does anyone release their cab later these days, I wonder?), and it declares, remarkably, an alcohol level of a mere 12.5%. I would love to declare it an unmixed triumph as an extreme justification for my belief that Stellenbosch must pick its cabs earlier, but not quite. There’s much that I liked – its sombre darkness, the well-resolved tannins that time in the bottle had given, but there is a herbal quality whose markedness I am slightly uneasy about (though I am not one to object to some of this character), and a degree of leanness. Actually I think I’d have preferred it younger if it was showing more fruit then – but perhaps it was just too tough to take to market.

I didn’t search hard for sub-14% alc examples, but noticed on the shelf the Noble Hill 2022, from just outside Stellenbosch, on the Paarl side of the mighty Simonsberg. The Noble Hill reds are always lovely and classically light (I wrote about them enthusiastically back in 2020, here). The Cab is light, easy-going, fresh and charming at a declared 13% alcohol, but with not much you could call depth, though good value at just over R200; I’m sure the Estate reserve would be much more interesting and I must find out.
It’s probable that wanting many more of the established big names in Stellenbosch cabs and Bordeuax-style blend to dip below 14% alcohol is asking too much. I’m totally convinced, however, that many of them could beneficially get a lot closer than they do. But perhaps I’m the odd-one-out in wishing for that.

• Tim James is one of South Africa’s leading wine commentators, contributing to various local and international wine publications. His book Wines of the New South Africa – Tradition and Revolution appeared in 2013.