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Cape of Good Wine

cape of good wine | Sipping my way through the Cape Winelands | A South African Wine Blog

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Cape of Good Wine

cape of good wine | Sipping my way through the Cape Winelands | A South African Wine Blog

About
- Contact Me
- Sample Policy
Musings & Ramblings
Learn with me
Interviews
Musings & Ramblings
Wine Reviews
Learn with me
- What's the Grape?
- Wine Regions
  - Constantia Wine Route
Wine Wise

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capeofgoodwine

🇿🇦 Cape Town based winelover
🍷 Always looking to try something new
📸 Obsessed with the old dinner table
👇🏾 Sometimes I have wine thoughts

Happy birthday to two people who always make me sm

Happy birthday to two people who always make me smile the biggest smile. @grzesiek.just.grzesiek doesn’t make wine, but he’s shared the most incredible wines with me each time he’s visited SA.

He’s also a huge fan of @blankbottlewinery ...and shares this birthday with Pieter Walser, the winemaker. And yeah...I feel lucky to have visited the winery a few weeks ago with @gourmetgarth . There were laughs and smiles and hugs. There were too many tasty wines. And there were SO many wonderful stories!

Drop a 🥳 in the comments to help me wish these two stunning human beings the happiest birthday.

Happy Halloween to everyone else 👻!

Martin & Anna Arndorfer Handcrafted Grüner Veltlin

Martin & Anna Arndorfer Handcrafted Grüner Veltliner 2021 + Arndorfer und Freunde Naturtrüb Grüner Veltliner 2021

Let’s play a little game called ‘Guess which tasting notes belong to which wine’. Because someone literally called them ‘Grüner’ and ‘the other Grüner’ and someone can’t figure out which one is which 😶. Notes in the slides.

One had searing acidity...the other had fizz that subsided pretty quickly. One felt like ripe apples & peach and showed a hint of spice (maybe the ‘Naturtrub’ as it’s a blend of 3 vineyards and 2023 has wood). The other was apples & citrus, barely making it to nectarines (perhaps the ‘Handcrafted’ as there’s on stainless steel).

Lesson learned: yeah, it’s exciting that SA now imports Grüner...but calm down and jot down the name before launching into tasting notes?

Domaine Landron Amphibolite Muscadet Sévre et Main

Domaine Landron Amphibolite Muscadet Sévre et Maine 2019

Can we pretend that the pile of soil represents the minerality of Muscadet? And not me ‘fiddling’ 😉 with foliage and spilling it all over the table 🤦🏾‍♀️. My initial opening pre-fiddle line was: can Muscadet be bottle aged?

It’s a relief to see a visible spritz bubbling alongside the pretty resounding lemon hue (yeah, still side-eyeing wine colours). Subtle medium intensity aromas of lemon, lime, white peaches, hay or damp straw, and a mustiness that is probably lees. No brine, no salinity 🙄.

Dry, medium (+) acidity, medium bodied with a gentle fizzy spritz that gives it extra pep and crisp...and a decent length to the finish (mediumish). Lemon oil, apple or pear flesh, bittersweet nettle leaves, sweet dry hay, a sense of toast, and an aftertaste of herbaceous grassy dandelion...maybe peppery rocket. No brine, no salinity 😳. Thoughts of beer and sourdough bread confirm the lees. No brine or salinity 🧐. There’s also a bitter grapefruit pith phenolic tug....and baking soda minerality that’s sort of reinforced by the spritz. No brine. No salinity 😱.

So for blinding purposes: spritz + lemon hue + phenolics + yeast = Muscadet as a solid option. Salinity would have been a much better slam dunk...or, let’s face it: ‘oh, of course...I forgot about this grape’.

I’ve just read some reviews and they kinda all mention salinity. Were my tastebuds taking a holiday after all the early Spring Sauv Blanc excitement? Does salinity dissipate with age? Do you also kinda sorta expect salinity from Melon de Bourgogne from this region?

Envinate Benje Blanco 2021 So much for all my tal

Envinate Benje Blanco 2021

So much for all my talk about Spring and Savvy B...but I finally found this bottle...and who can resist a Canarian wine! Also, I’ve noticed a few of these on the gram this week...so it must be a sign.

One liner TLDR: Lemony honeyed cider guzzled while eating sugary pancakes at a deserted harbour long after the fishermen have packed away their nets for the day.

Pale amber that’s totes giving orange wine vibes...but clear and luminous and pure gold... like the colour of your parents’ wedding rings.

Flint and stanky seaweed dominate (little worrying as the cork was 3/4 saturated)... you can’t escape thoughts of volcanoes and sulphur. As well as lemon oil, orange blossoms, freshly cut and bruised Granny Smith apples, some nuttiness (almond flour), subtle nutmeg, peaches, straw, and sea fog salinity.

Dry, high acidity, a textural grapefruit pith to the medium (+) body, and a long but one dimensional finish. Greengage, juicy fresh lemons (enough to raise one eyebrow and squint with the other eye), yellow grapefruit flesh and pith and numbing zest 🤣, salinity, and meebos (dried and salted peaches). There’s a little honey and brown sugar that makes me think of pancakes because, once the pithy tannins subside, a faint pastry creaminess coats your tongue. Yeast, cider, oxidized green apples, briny green olives, and cooked green bell peppers.

It’s everything, okay! Next stop, Muscadet...coz Savvy B can wait.

Wine Smart Pinotage Mixed Case [gifted] Shall we

Wine Smart Pinotage Mixed Case [gifted]

Shall we wrap up what I’ve learned about this Wine Smart Pinotage Mixed Case before I fully immerse myself in Spring?

Sure, some of the wines show notes of banana. Some have a distinctive day old campfire smoke...sometimes in the form of mineral smoke (when you’re burning things you shouldn’t and it reads as tar). But Pinotage viti & vini has come a long way, with producers who are now passionate about the grape’s potential...they’ve learned how to manage these aromas/flavours, turning them, instead, into pleasant added complexity.

Beyond the blind tasting blessing of banana & smoky tar, here are my Cliff notes:

👀 : fairly concentrated colour, sometimes leaning towards purple. Even with lighter ruby shades, I find myself wary of potential stains.

👃: a delightful confusion between red & black berries (sometimes earthy blues too)...in a way that’s different to S. Rhône or BDX blends...once you land on mulberry, there’s a good chance it’s Pinotage. Often plums. Sometimes ripe figs, stewed fruit, and prunes. Often oak, but sometimes not. Coffee and chocolate are a style...but think staves or chips to match the price point (coz I know many of you can spot this 😉). And a totally unexpected incense note across most of these wines (something I usually reserve for Cali reds)!

👄: medium everything. There’s good structure...but usually not quite high or full, and typically not low or light. Though, we all know my faves are Pinot-esque. Mostly dry, but there are commercial styles with some RS.

It’s a great box. Exactly what a Pinotage lover would expect. And great for styles you’d expect in an exam. But I’d tweak this box by adding a rosé and Cap Classique (also shows blending potential) for summer and showing the grapes flexibility and broader appeal.

If you’re in SA, the boxes are available at Makro. Thanks again to Vinimark for this curated Pinotage learning opportunity!

Question for y’all: what would you include in your personally curated wine box (grape varieties, regions, countries, or specific producers)? Coz you know I’d purchase your curations any day!

Celestina Agulhas White 2023 Caroline Rillema, th

Celestina Agulhas White 2023

Caroline Rillema, the winemaker, owns Caroline’s Fine Wine Cellar. When I worked in the city, I’d often stroll to the legendary Cape Town store (now in Sea Point) during lunch breaks and teach myself about international wines by wandering the shelves in her beautiful store. Now that I work from home, the Tokai store has become my closest source for imported wines. It’s home to local and international tastings where I’m far too loud, and they host a massive annual Red Wine Review (there’s also a White Wine Review) that’s become an institution. Her husband, Ray, is also a charmer...highly recommend sitting next to him at tastings!

The lady is impressive...kind, supportive and unnecessarily generous with making wines available to me during my studies too🙏🏾. It’s taken me far too long to acquire her very own wine, this Sauvignon Blanc Semillon blend from Agulhas. SB (50%) aged in old oak & Sem (50%) matured in amphora:

Confident lemon & lime cordial, lemon sherbet minerality, yellow apples, tender fig leaf, distant green bell peppers, and a wisp of honeyed hay-like thatch.

Dry, friendly but vibrant acidity, lighter bodied, and a satisfying medium (+) length to the finish. Orange sherbet, crushed oyster shells, peaches, lime cordial, and subtle retronasal green bell peppers. There’s also a sense of wandering the coastline, and exploring the rugged flora kissed by crushed shells and sea salt...can you tell that I’m in need of a warm beach day!

This might be another one for the SB naysayers as the green notes lean towards green fig.

This is my first Sauv Sem for the season coz my palate has officially switched over to Spring mode. It’s also the last Women’s Month post for 2025...fitting, as the Celestina is a recommendation from @myboozykitchen , a woman I featured in last year. Cheers to Spring (and it’s perfect Savvy B pairing). Cheers to women...and an especial cheers to these two supportive women supporting women!

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