Thursday, May 05, 2016

Wine of the week - South Hill Sauvignon blanc 2007

Unless you still have some, this wonderful wine is, sadly, now unobtainable. We tasted it with winemaker Sean Skibbe this weekend when he gave us a tasting of 10 years of his wines and it was amazing, it has aged so well

Still fresh, fruit driven, lively with green notes and fig leaf pyroxenes and wonderfully full and rounded. We then bought a case of the newly released 2015 and are going to put it away for a few years to see what it becomes. We have high hopes. As we keep saying, drink older white wines, they do not suddenly deteriorate in a year, often they get better and better
and three older reds which show how well our wines can last when kept in good cellars
We had supper in front of a roaring fire and treated ourselves with some really good older wines.
The 1987 Nederburg Paarl Cabernet Sauvignon was a total surprise. We all expected it to be interesting when first opened and then to fade quickly. We could not have been more wrong. It was full of smooth dark cassis fruit and elegance and improved in the glass as we drank it. As Peter said, it was up there with some good French Cabernets 
The 1998 Thelema Cabernet also delighted us with its classic cassis fruit and elegance and minty flavours 
The Beaumont Mourvedre 2001 was another surprise, rich and heavy, dark and wild; almost Italian in character, we loved it
 Who says good South African wines don't last? Not us
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus

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