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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

Learn with me

Colombard

Colombard - What's The Grape

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

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

Michael Fridjhon Wine Judging Academy

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

Klein Karoo Terroir Tasting

WSET Diploma Part 2: D2 The Business of Wine

WSET Diploma Part 3: D1 Viticulture & Viniculture

WSET Diploma Part 1: Where to start?

Tempranillo – What’s The Grape

Hárslevelü – What’s The Grape

Pinotage - What's The Grape

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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

Intellego Hey Mila Méthode Ancestrale 2024 This

Intellego Hey Mila Méthode Ancestrale 2024

This is in no way, shape or form an ‘alternative’ wine. You’ll easily find sparkling Mourvèdre...and Monastrell...and Mataro. Maaaybe I made an incorrect assumption a few weeks ago...maybe I just wanted to feature this wine...and so maybe I’ll spin this as: my last sparkling post was in December 2023 🙄...and this Intellego is most likely one of two sparklings I’ll post in 2025. Sparkling IS alternative...to me 🤣.

A hazy pretty sunset salmon colour exploding (my fault...room temp...needed a photo without condensation) with aromas of orange blossoms, lavender, red apples, yellow cling peaches, musky apricot stone, subtle cloves and cardamom, dried orange peel (not candies), raspberries, diluted Ribena and ripe plums.

Dry (6g/L), shiver inducing yumminess, bright acidity, non existent tannins but a subtle pithy texture, fine frothy mousse that dissipates really quickly in the mouth, and a decent finish that’s a combination of grapefruit pith, cloves and spiced pears/peaches. Verdict: fokken lekker!

To make up for my faux pas and to make it up to my #alternativeapril Aussie friends, @winelifeforme and @shirazzmatazz : Did you know that Australia has the oldest continuous Mataro vineyard in the world - planted in 1853 in The Old Garden Vineyard in the Barossa Valley! Pre-phylloxera own roots and all.

Okay fine, you knew that. But does anyone know why Aus calls the grape by its Catalan name, Mataro (seems to be changing)? This question has bugged me for years.

One more thing...tell the truth now: when’s the last time you had a sparkling Mourvèdre? It is sort of alternative? 😈

Klein Amoskuil The Amos Block Perpetual Reserve Un $Klein Amoskuil The Amos Block Perpetual Reserve Under Flor Happy Malbec Day! In the spirit of Malbec...okay fine, it’s not Malbec 🤪. This week’s #AlternativeApril is Sauvignon Blanc from dryland farmed bush vines planted in 1965 - the Klein Amoskuil farm’s Amos Block are the oldest Sauvignon Blanc vineyards in South Africa. Old vine SB not alternative enough for you? Okay...it’s been barrel fermented in old French barrels. No? How about we fortify this. Still not convinced this is unusual? It’s then doused with a flor yeast culture! And yup, there’s a solera started in 2014 so we get to use our favourite phrase ‘fractional blending’...in the Swartland. A deeper golden ochre with orange luminosity blooms audacious notes of citrusy lemon zest and orange peel, bruised green apples, savoury kelp funk and seafog salinity, nutty almond skin and walnuts, bitter herbal chamomile and fennel, salty toffee, honey, and bread dough that reminds me of dried florals. Dry, almost temerarious/brazen acidity that feels unbalanced at first but resolves itself over the next few hours into uber fresh, lip smacking goodness. Medium-ish bodied and textured, with a long finish that warrants a paragraph all of its own. Copy/paste the nose and add salted preserved lemons, bitter radicchio, earthy raw white mushrooms and dried onions, quince...I could keep going aka it’s got everything. If you love Sherry and love Madeira’s acid, then this is a rustic charmer (particularly from day 2 onwards). Alternative? I thiiiink I nailed it? So weird but handy that I’ve never posted about this before coz I drink it all the time. What do you think...do you know of another flor-aged, fortified wine made from only SB?$

Stellenbosch Vineyards Therona 2022 Friends, fami

Stellenbosch Vineyards Therona 2022

Friends, family, countrymen (coz this is a truly alternative variety that is noteworthy and worth the effort of sourcing), lend me your ears/eyes/tastebuds:

A wisp of reductive flint before pronounced honeysuckle and orange blossoms, lemon oil, oranges, mandarins, oats and peanut shells, honey, winter melon!, cashew nuts, burned sugar, nail polish remover (in an attractive musty apple core way) brandy fumes, vanilla, lemon curd on nom nom nom toasted brioche (huuuungry!). The nose is heavenly.

Dry but lingering toffee notes make you think it’s sweeter than it is. Medium plus-ish body and acidity, and a loooong finish that leaves you with comforting soft toffee and vanilla. The palate is a smudged mirror to the nose: watery naartjies, watery pears, bitter herbals...all together now, say it with me: fynbos! But it’s the winter melon and digestive oat biscuits that are most dominant for me. Empty glass sniff - check.

Therona is a crossing between Crouchen Blanc and Chenin Blanc developed by Professor Orffer in the 1950s (yup, dude was busy).

Made from a single row of Therona (only 100 vines). Basket pressed, wild yeast ferment in barrels, matured for 5 months in 2nd fill French oak...only 900 bottles were uhm bottled.

I’m not always on board with these human intervention crossings. My first thoughts when looking and smelling this golden wine was oaked Sem or melon-y Chard...perhaps a Spanish white wine. It’s clear that, with 100 vines, there’s no intention of competing with Chard or Sem. But crossing works - it’s surprisingly distinctive and hella delicious...and I look forward to repurchasing this for as long as Stellenbosch Vineyards continue to produce it.

Rebel Rebel Old Vine Colombar 2023 I’m so late

Rebel Rebel Old Vine Colombar 2023

I’m so late to the Rebel Rebel party...but yo, I’m here now....and it’s a banging party!

Yellower yellow than I expected...but these boogie lights deliver on their promise of a good time: green apple and melon, quince, honey, green hay, dry grass, earthy fresh button mushrooms, chamomile, mild sweet brandy fumes, and salinity.

Slinky RS (only 4g) is elegantly countered by savoury salinity, while electric acidity pulses through the medium body with its creamy texture...all the way through the fairly lengthy (med +) grapefruit-zing finish. White peaches, lemongrass, and pineapple have you John Travolta’ing a finger in the air.

Conclusion? It’s fucking delicious! Though, be warned, it loses some of that addictive vibrating energy by day 2...so invite a friend, pop the cork and finish it in one sitting.

South Africans aren’t strangers to Colombar(d). Like Cognac, we’ve traditionally grown the grape for brandy distillation. It often makes its way into blends. But there’s been a beautiful old vine Colombar revolution that celebrates the grape as varietal wines...led by exciting winemakers that include Rebel Rebel’s Kayleigh Hattingh. And you know SA is great at revolution when we feel like it! Vive la révolution.

Migliarina Albariño 2023 Migliarina: love, rave

Migliarina Albariño 2023

Migliarina: love, rave, swoon, excite, ya da ya da fishpaste.

Albariño acid is weird, am I right??? When I think of this grape, I think pretty aromatics, oily texture, and hiiiiiigh acidity. But Albariño acid hits differently..it’s distinctive in the way it often also rides on the texture.

This Migliarina is so pretty...and not in an ambiguous winemaker-speak way. Jasmine and white lilies dance between yellow peaches delicately steeped in cinnamon and nutmeg, while lime cordial flows below.

Deceivingly dry coz your brain says ‘pretty sweetness’, and your mouth says ‘hold up, that’s not true’. High acid...but juuuust shy of uncomfortably hiiiighhh 🤣. Medium bodied with a slinky waxiness, as well as some grapefruit pith grip. And a longer finish. There’s a subtle herbal buchu note riding just below the pretty peaches and baking spices. Leesy yeasty vibes tickle the back palate. It’s ridiculously easy to keep sipping and refilling when you don’t stop to think about it...and it makes you think...so, before long, you need another sip!

It’s so so so good! I barely finished the second sip and knew I needed more bottles. Coz I also think this will age for 5 years...and I’d be curious to see what this could feel like at 7-8 years...mushroomy and honey tertiaries with this acid and lemony goodness?

Albariño isn’t alternative...but in SA it sorta is, regardless of the month. So consider this the amuse-bouche to April’s shenanigans. I am pretty keen to see what @winelifeforme and @shirazzmatazz (henceforth, collectively known as ‘the Aussies’) will be showcasing next week!

Hasher Family Wines Ernest Pinot Noir 2023 When t

Hasher Family Wines Ernest Pinot Noir 2023

When the weather starts to turn and the days are still (mostly) warm but you find yourself reaching for the blanket in the middle of the night...I think that’s when Pinot Noir really shines as a gentle buffer between seasons.

This is such a happy clear pale ruby colour! A moderately intense nose celebrates the summer fruits: tart cranberries, just ripe strawberries, musky pomegranate, damson plums and a spritz of orange zest. While dustings of earthy cinnamon dust and leafy green fynbos have me looking forward to cooler walks in the mountains.

Dry, with lively acidity, the lighter side of medium bodied, finely grained tannins, and a lengthy finish. Ahhh...and then the banana thoughts started to invade 🤣. But first: watery pomegranate juice, juicy raspberries and red wine gums, tomato leaves, the earthy salinity of a terracotta clay pot, and wet cherry tobacco.

I’d be quite keen to see what this looks like after a few years when tertiary notes start to appear on this well made wine.

Thank you to Hasher Family Wines for this lovely gift...a last, wistful look back at a carefree while eagerly anticipating the cosiness of autumn.

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