For the fourth year running, this just earned South Africa’s most prestigious wine award, 5 stars and 96 points in the Platter Guide (the “Bible of South African Wine”). But aside from maybe some of the rare (and super-expensive) bottlings from cult producer Eben Sadie, (and the old $100+ Road to Santiagos Grobler made for Rickety Bridge), I don’t think there’s really any South African white to compare this to.
Rather, it reminds me of some of the very greatest examples of Australia’s greatest dry white wine (especially for aging), Hunter Valley Semillon. (The best examples of which don’t even make it to the US.) Like the Hunter Valley icons, it’s picked early and fresh (at only 11.5% alcohol) – and though it starts life relatively lighter and fresher, over the decades it will gradually unfurl into a wine of utterly massive, waxy/lanolin and textured dry Semillon richness and character.
That said, this South African example, from such incredibly ancient vines, and given three months in neutral oak, as well as some skin contact, is already (especially compared to say a young Tyrell’s Vat 1) quite rich and imposing…and amazingly layered and complex. I’m pretty sure there’s NO 11% alcohol white (and not many at 15%) this multidimensional and rich.
Flat-out world class dry white wine, surely (as the Platter Guide recognizes) one of South Africa’s greatest, and just incredibly reasonable for what’s in the bottle.
