Columella 2015
By Christian Eedes, 9 November 2017
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3
Damn fine.
Concept and execution grow ever more closely aligned, the search for perfection ever closer to being completed with Eben Sadie’s red blend that is Columella. The current-release 2015 is a blend of mainly Syrah, Grenache and Mourvèdre with the remainder Cinsaut, Tinta Barocca and Carignan, matured for 12 months in small barrels (8% new) and then for another 12 months in foudre.
On the nose, cherries, plums raspberry, blueberry and blackberry, lavender, fynbos, liquorice, white pepper and spice. The palate is dense but not too dense with lemon-like acidity and fine tannins. Nothing exaggerated, all of a piece, it transports you to its place of origin and isn’t that what great wine does? Approximate retail price: R795 a bottle.
Editor’s rating: 97/100.
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Tim James13 November 2017
I suspect that most of the Platter tasters would rate Columella similarly if they too were tasting it sighted and at the sort of leisure and in the sort of situation that allows one to appreciate subtleties. Big blind tastings are basically a farce.
Smirrie9 November 2017
At last Mr. Eedes.
Not to open up the whole Platter Guide debate again but how the hell was this superb wine skipped for a 5 star.
Ps: i agree with your score 100%.
Can you imagine this wine in 10 years time.
Kwispedoor9 November 2017
Smirrie, I wonder if the Platter tasters themselves don’t also sometimes look back on the five star results and feel perplexed. Maybe they also wonder how something like this beauty was overlooked for five stars. Perhaps some would think by themselves “99 points for a big-ass 15% alcohol red? Eish, perhaps something like 95 points would have been more credible?”
But you can’t talk, think, train or act away palate (or other forms of) fatigue from big tastings. Good luck to them with fine-tuning the process, but they’re doomed to never quite get it right. In fairness, really getting it “right” would be an unreasonable expectation.