Bellevue 1953 Pinotage 2016

Monumental.

Bellevue in Stellenbosch, famed for being one of the first farms to work with Pinotage, now has a top-end wine from a vineyard established in 1953.

The nose shows red and black cherry plus vanilla and spice (maturation lasted 18 months in a combination of new and second-fill French oak barrels) with a little floral character in the background. The palate is rich and flavourful, plenty of dense fruit plus tannins which are rather firm currently and needing time to mellow. It’s a forceful wine, the team behind it perhaps trying a little too hard to justify its price tag of R545 a bottle.

Editor’s rating: 90/100.

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