As much as I love to side eye Pinot for being needy and pricey, there really isn’t anything quite like the incredible bouquet that the grape offers.

And this wine is a wonderful example that exists to teach me the error of my judgmental ways.

The Wine:

Pale ruby, with a pronounced nose of rose petals, raspberries, cherries, orange peel, ripe oranges, light cloves, aniseed, cardamom, leather, mushrooms, soy sauce, and clay earth...it’s the kind of wine you want to sniff for ages.

The wine is dry, with medium(+) acidity, medium alcohol, medium bodied, medium firm tannins, medium(+) finish. And there is delicious garrigue/fynbos on the palate.

Vini + Viti:

100% Pinot Noir from 3 cool climate vineyards in Elgin. Most of the grapes were destemmed into open tanks with hand punch downs, the rest went into closed tanks with pump-overs. Basket pressed, racked into primarily 2nd, 3rd & 4th fill French oak and 10%ish new oak.

 

Final thoughts: 

Rüdger van Wyk is the winemaker at Stark-Condé Wines, and Kara-Tara is a joint venture between the two. The name Kara Tara is Khoisan for ‘deep dark shadows’ and refers to the Karatara River that runs through George, Rüdger’s home town. He’s an oenology graduate from Stellies University, a Cape Winemakers’ Guild Protége, worked at Kanonkop, has worked a harvest in Burgundy, and was the 2018 Diner’s Club Young Winemaker of the Year.

Find the Wine:

stark-conde-shop.co.za