Hmm, lately I’ve been re-exploring South African wines, and have stumbled on some really impressive impressive bottlings.
It all started with the odd comment by someone on the Squire’s board (http://fora.erobertparker.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi) stating that they thought the syrah’s from SA would be the ones to finally vault the country onto the main stage.
So off I went to pull some. It has been awhile since I tasted any SA stuff at all, and the last really exploratory effort was with pinotage, their pinot noir x cinsault hybrid.
At the top of the list of findings are all of the wines of Robertson Winery. This is great stuff, from their Robertson Valley Chardonnay to the single vineyard, sweet Gewurztraminer, which is by the way, a great value too. Actually, all of the wines are excellent values, and their Wolfskloof vineyard Shiraz is a hit.
Also, syrah from Graham Beck is delicious, and their Coffeestone Cabernet Sauvignon is excellent. Klovenburg swung and missed with their lineup, but Rust en Vrede went over the fence with their ‘01 Estate red bottling! It’s a cab/syrah blend, and unbelievably concentrated. It’s about $27 retail, but an exceptional buy and my favorite of the bunch to date.
More to come later.