Jancis Robinson - 18/20
Full bottle 1,557 g. 69% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Cabernet Franc, 11% Merlot and 7% Petit Verdot. Lightly crushed into stainless-steel tanks. Indigenous-yeast fermentation with a mixture of rack and returns and open pumpovers. Post-fermentation skin contact for 2–3 weeks, then pressed gently. Malolactic fermentation in French oak barrels. On lees for a long period of time before racking. Racked on average every four months. 24 months in new French oak barrels, with egg-white clarification. Natural cork. TA 5.7 g/l, pH 3.52, RS 2.1 g/l. 27,200 bottles made.
Deep ruby-black. Compact nose of graphite, toasted bread, wood-toast, vanilla fudge and dried tobacco. The fruit is broad-spectrum, ripe black fruit, giving a hint of cassis, but is more than that – truly a blend. Sleek and precise on the palate, with a floral, blueberry liqueur component that gives way to oak smoke and savoury spiciness. The tannins build but there’s nothing unripe or over-extracted here. Very, very well-made and will reward cellaring before broaching. Bordeaux meets South Africa indeed. (TJ)