With so many variations, blends and flavour profiles, there seems to be no end to the styles of red wine. For centuries, humans have been creating red wines and experimenting with techniques to produce a vast array of wines. This is a selection you can enjoy this month.
YONDER HILL NICOLA
Nicola 2016 took Gold at Michelangelo International Wine and Spirits Awards and is considered to be one of the finest vintages of the century. It is a big and serious wine, yet very soft, with juicy rounded tannins. It has herbaceous notes and ripe blackcurrant fruit. Complex structure, where everything from the fruit to tannins and acidity is perfectly balanced: a classic.
Nicola is Yonderhill’s premium blend of 46% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Petit Verdot, 18% Cabernet Franc and 18% Merlot. After blending, the wine was matured in 70% new French oak barrels for 18 months. This is a complex classic blend with a bigger addition of Petite Verdot for freshness.
Perfect with lamb, duck and roast beef. RRP R375
DE KRANS TRITONIA
De Krans Wine Cellar is situated along the upper reaches of the picturesque Gamka River Valley near Calitzdorp. The farm dates back to 1890 when the current owners’ great-grandfather bought part of the first farm established in Calitzdorp named Buffelsvallei on the edge of the municipal boundary of Calitzdorp.
It is a full-bodied wine with flavours of violets and dark fruit with savoury notes. There are full fruit aromas of raspberry, prunes and mulberries, with hints of dark chocolate and spice.
This flagship wine is a tribute to the beautiful Tritonia with its colourful flowers, of which eight different species occur in the Klein Karoo, the most complex and species rich arid area in the world. RRP R230
FRIESLAND BROER & SUSTER SHIRAZ-GRENACHE
This is a smart blend combining the masculine robustness and body of Shiraz with the feminine elegance and fruit driven profile of Grenache … and the celebrates siblings make great wine together. The Shiraz component brings structure, dark fruit and spice flavours to the blend, with the Grenache part adding elegance, bright red fruit and sweeter notes of cinnamon and chocolate. The wine was fermented in open concrete fermenters and matured in French oak barrels for 12 months. Enjoy today or over the next decade. RRP R199
Glenwood Save our Rhinos Shiraz
The only Shiraz vineyard on GlenWood finally achieved the desired balance to produce premium-quality grapes. Well-balanced growth delivers even ripeness and beautiful structure.
This is an opulent, full-bodied wine with supple, vibrant fruit and tannins. Spicey, white pepper, smoky aromas pervade a ripe, fruit-driven profile. Profits from the sales will be donated to the Rhino Revolution NPO. RRP R110
Zandvliet Shiraz
Say Zandvliet and it will echo ‘Shiraz’! Being one of the very first wineries in the country to bottle this noble cultivar, this wine estate on the outskirts of the Robertson Valley Wine Route combines time-honoured tradition with modern-day expertise to produce pure luxury in a glass.
The wine introduces you to a ripe complex nose showing flavours of plums, blackcurrants and pepper with hints of mixed spice. These deep flavours follow through to a seamless, supple and complex palate with added hints of dark chocolate. RRP R125
Luditte saboteur
2009 was the maiden vintage of the Saboteur Red and was an exciting year for the Luddites. It was the year they used their own cellar for the first time and the first year that all the grapes were sourced from the Bot River Valley. It was also the first time that a new wine was bottled to join the Luddite Shiraz.
With the Saboteur Red, the style is unashamedly new world where they are going for crunchy, juicy fruit balanced by vibrant tannins. This contrasts nicely with the Luddite Shiraz, which is more classic in style. The red blend will always be Shiraz driven with a Rhône slant. What makes it different, is that their Cabernet Sauvignon is too good to leave out! It only spends one year in barrel with wooding and is released soon after bottling.
This wine is a blend of Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Mourvèdre and Monastrell. The highest ever percentage of Cabernet has freshened the wine, adding cassis to the plum as well as date flavours. Concentrated, ripe and stylishly packaged. RRP R250
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