Beaumont Starboard NV

Kooky.

To write about Starboard NV from Bot River property Beaumont or not to write about it? It’s Fortified Dessert Wine of the Year in the 2018 edition of Platter’s, and one approach would be to extend congratulations and leave it at that. However, it is also a most curious wine…

A blend of five vintages (’05,’07,’08,’09 and ’11) of the cellar’s conventional port-style wine, it incorporates both Tinta Barocca and Pinotage and is classified as a “dessert wine” as an official category otherwise didn’t exist.

On the nose, red and black fruit, spice and malt. The palate is mellow and accessible, balanced but not particularly detailed. It’s a pleasant enough tipple but suggesting that it is the best fortified wine that the country is capable of making is crackpot. Wine Cellar price: R140 per 375ml bottle.

Editor’s rating: 87/100.

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