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Cape of Good Wine

Cape of Good Wine

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

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      • Riesling
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      • Constantia Wine Route
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Cape of Good Wine

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
    • BIPOC Wine Brands
    • Red Wines
    • White Wines
      • Riesling
    • Rosé Wines
    • International Wines
    • Non Alcoholic Wine
  • Learn with me
    • What's the Grape?
    • Wine Regions
      • Constantia Wine Route
  • Wine Wise

wset level 4

WSET Diploma Part 6: How to stand a chance at passing D3 Theory

WSET Diploma Part 5: Is D6 really a 'research' assignment?

WSET Diploma Part 4: Failure...and getting over it.

WSET Diploma Part 2: D2 The Business of Wine

WSET Diploma Part 3: D1 Viticulture & Viniculture

WSET Diploma Part 1: Where to start?

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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

Magna Carta Red Webster’s dictionary defines blin Magna Carta Red

Webster’s dictionary defines blind-tasting as the masochistic act of humbling one’s narcissistic wine snob tendencies. I kid...I’ve never opened a Merriam-Webster dictionary in my life 🤣. But when the winemaker is harvesting and the label says ‘red’ and you can’t bring yourself to bug them yet again:

Hazy pale ruby with a garnet rim. Pronounced aromas already show noticeably tertiary notes of dried cedar and pencil shavings, dried mushrooms and leather...but they’re integrated with fresh red plums and cherries, tomato stew, beefstock, star anise, and the pleasant floral perfume of VA (I said pleasant!).

Dry, bright chewy acidity, medium bodied, fine barely-there tannins, and a good finish. It’s vibrant and, if I didn’t know it was local, I’d head to natural Italy because of the tart red fruits, tomato and balsamic profile.

Eish...so I don’t know what these grapes are. Mphumi didn’t tell me. My guess is Pinot Noir for colour development and tannins, could be cool Pinotage, maybe young Shiraz and Mourvèdre for meatiness. But Cab Franc also fits the profile because there’s a touch of green at the very end.

And that’s the thing. Does labelling the grapes in a blend even matter to the vast majority if you’re enjoying the wine? In conclusion: Webster’s Dictionary defines the wine student as one who desperately tries to justify failing blind tasting exams. 🤣
Soul Barrel Brewing Co Old Cellar Barleywine So e Soul Barrel Brewing Co Old Cellar Barleywine

So erm...not wine. But there’s a reason this style of beer is called barley ‘wine’! 12.4% abv + barrel ageing + solera system + layers of deep complexity that’ll have you writing pages of descriptors. Also, the bottle shape, wax over the crown cap, and creative essay 🤣 on the label...tell me this doesn’t count as ‘wine’...ish’! This was, undoubtedly, THE most interesting beverage I tasted in 2025.

I don’t know beer tasting notes, so bear with: hazy dark brown in colour with a medium intensity nose of toffee, dark soy sauce, thick oyster sauce, a touch of sea fog, dried peaches and pears, molasses, well fermented sourdough and malt porridge (IYKYK). And all the brewy bready aromas you inhale when passing your local brewery.

Off dry, full bodied, fuckall acidity (low), a dense texture that I don’t know how to describe, and a medium (+) finish. Toasted grains, floral perfume (fresh rose petals), a touch of overripe oranges, stewed fruits, and umami yum. Behind it all is the steadfast medicinal tincture bitterness. And yup, there are delicious malty burps 🤣...coz duh, it’s beer.  One liner: malt porridge topped with stewed dried fruit for breakfast.

In terms of wine, think real Tawny Port with no acidity, far less sugar, and the seaside umami that makes you think ‘shit, Tawny or Madeira?’...perhaps even similar to an insipid commercial dark Cream Sherry without the sugar.

Fun fact: my brother, who is a beer drinker, immediately nailed the abv, production methods, maturation, ageing potential, price point, pairing suggestion and target consumer. 🤦🏾‍♀️ - passionate and experienced enthusiast beats book nerd student every time!

Tell me this doesn’t count as ‘wine’...ish.
Zidarich Vitovska 2020 Uhm...Vitovska, anyone? No Zidarich Vitovska 2020

Uhm...Vitovska, anyone? Not gonna lie, for the longest time I thought it was part of the winery name. Nope, it’s a cross between Prosecco Tondo and Malvasia Bianca Lunga that’s predominantly found in Carso in Friuli-Venezia Giulia (quite possibly my favourite wine name to say) or Kras in Slovenia. New grape unlocked.

The cloudy pale amber made promises of orange wine goodness, and it delivered on those promises with medium intensity floral jasmine green tea, subtle citrus like orange oil, peaches, herbal bitterness, beef broth and kombu salinity.

Lively acidity, light but present powdery tannins that are initially austere but quickly become 🤤, and a lengthy clean finish. Oodles of super lemony floral green tea, dried pear and peaches, brandy fumes, the wormy bit of the nectarine closest to the pip that’s slightly bitter, flinty minerality, and some salinity. Saliva inducing sweetness floods your mouth after the tincture-esque bitterness. This expands to a hint of honey, cumin and exotic cardamom on the second day...which is probably a sign that this could be decanted. Not a hint of funk. Oneliner: planting jasmine and chamomile in damp loamy soil pockets of a rockery garden where the rocks are warmed by the sun.

This is another latergram...and another extraordinary gift from my Polish besties 🙏🏾❤️ who have instilled in me a love for this part the world where vineyards transcend country borders!
Johnson Estate Concord 2022 Gosh...this is such a Johnson Estate Concord 2022

Gosh...this is such a latergram. I’ve been wanting to post about this wine for ages because it is such a rarity in SA. US wine + Lake Erie AVA + New York’s oldest estate winery + Concord grape i.e. non vinifera + a sweet red. It’s also something that not many of us in this wine community would choose? Long story short: loved it + new grape unlocked. And a thoughtful and truly interesting gift from @gossandfound 🙏🏾.

Pronounced black grapes, confected grape flavourant, almost marzipan almondy, blueberry, vanilla, musk sweets, and bubblegum - specifically for anyone from southern Africa: the Chappies grape flavour bubblegum!!! It smells too good to be adult?

Medium sweet (how often do we get to say that!), medium bodied, nice acidity that lingers at the end, and no need to mention tannins. This has a delicious bitter musky herbal note that pops in at the mid palate - which is beneficial as it adds a little complexity. There’s substantial length too. It tastes too good to be adult?

Ultimately, this is dangerous if you have a sweet tooth. I reckon it’d be a great base for a low alcohol cocktail...maybe add smoked rosemary and bump up the hint of bitterness with grapefruit zest? The label mentions it being too sweet for dinner...but I wonder if it could work with an ostrich steak served with a berry and clove jus.

Look, it’s hard to find space for this sort of wine in my life. But it’s delightful, honest and fun...much like sweet Muscat, it’s an occasional novel treat that’d be a winner at the old aunty table at the baby shower - sigh...I am that old aunty!
Tahbilk Marsanne 2000 TLDR: new grape unlocked. Tahbilk Marsanne 2000

TLDR: new grape unlocked.

A glass of yellow sunshine plays incubator to intense and punchy aromas of lemon oil, green papayas, green pineapples, green straw, dill, thick grainy honey, and ripe oranges.

Dry, vibrant medium (+) acidity, the lighter side of medium bodied with lemon peel texture, and a lengthy finish. The palate mostly echoes the nose, but is dominated by zesty lemonade, ripe greengage plums, and underripe mango skin (things that, in hindsight, I associate with minerality). There’s some salinity, and lashings of hay, mushrooms and blue oranges on the finish.

Something about the acidity/texture/lean austerity was quite ferocious and it took me a minute (many sips/glasses) to feel comfortable with this wine. Don’t you worry, I got very comfortable 😋.

What’s extraordinary is how fresh and vibrant this 25/26 year old wine still is (when’s Aussie harvest 🤣?). What’s unbelievable is that this well aged Australian icon was my very first 100% Marsanne! Hence Alternative April. All thanks to the very generous @markswirl .

Triple whammy incredulity: barely 3 weeks after my first Marsanne, and after years of looking for one...I found a stash of supermarket private label wines that pale in comparison to Tahbilk, obviously! But, together, they’ve given me a better understanding of the grape’s characteristics and its role in blends (and why too). So much so, that I think I can now even spot it in big Rhône style blends because it’s oddly identifiable. Win! Also...I now pronounce this winery name correctly! Also also, Mark is officially the GOAT aka MTMM!
Dom Bliskowice Johanniter Ultra 2020 When you bre Dom Bliskowice Johanniter Ultra 2020

When you break an empty bottle you had every intention of saving forever...because the perfectly painterly calligraphic J in the perfect shade of yellow is one my favourite wine label designs (possibly hand painted 😳❤️🙌🏾 coz it looks slightly different in pics I’ve found online?)!

Polish, small batch, low intervention orange wine made from the Johanniter grape: normal in Poland, novel to me = counts as alternative to me.

The brown bottle imbues beautiful hazy early sunset hues subsumed (yeah, I’m done) with acacia and honeysuckle blossoms, ripe oranges, apricots, peach tea, crushed limestone, honeyed mead and beeswax, hay and dried herbs. Fleshed out by yellow apples, quince, and zesty grapefruit. Lovely acidity, surprisingly structured with black tea tannins, a richness to the mouthfeel, and a generous finish.

Look, there was much excitement in the form of kisses, hugs, hugs, kisses, introductions to besties, exploding bubbly corks, fooood, introduction to kids, hugs, kisses, and just staring adoringly at G & K...I barely remember what they told me about the winemaker. Uncertified organic/biodynamic + minimal intervention + on Michelin restaurant wine lists + cool AF is what I’ve since discovered. Also...not sure if I can recycle this broken bottle because I think it’s bloody perfect! 

Ps. I recently watched Konstantin Baum declare that he’s not a fan of the Veuve yellow: I disagree 😈 because, much like this wine, I think it’s the perfect shade of pumpkin yellow. So I put it to him that it’s not the yellow, but the meh common dark green bottle colour that is actually the problem...and put forward this classy brown Hock bottle. Unless he also hates yellow daffodils, sunrises, bowls filled with lemons, and the Angostura Bitters’ cap ...happy to proven wrong. 💛
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