So many good wines tasted over the last few days! I’m going to write up notes on some of my favourites, but really it seems unfair just to pick out a few of many. So I guess I’ll have to do this in parts, and because there are so many stunning bottles it might take a while.

Savage Wines Thief in The Night 2017 Piekenierskloof, South Africa
This new wine is a blend of 48% Grenache, 46% Cinsault and 6% Syrah, 70% whole bunch, aged in a large old foudre. Duncan Savage would like this to be 70% Grenache, but he couldn’t get enough. It has fabulous purity. Smooth and fine with a lovely harmony to the structure. Supple red cherry and raspberry fruit with a fine, grainy structure. It’s immensely pretty but also serious, with it. 96/100

Hogan Divergent 2017 Western Cape, South Africa
What a wine! A blend of a third each of Polkadraai Cabernet Sauvignon, Wellington Carignan and Helderberg Cinsault, this is amazing in 2017. Floral and expressive with lovely sweet blackcurrant, raspberry and red cherry fruit. This is a thrilling effort with lightness and prettiness but also substance. 96/100

Blackwater Pleasure Garden Palomino 2017 Robertson, South Africa
From a block planted in 1927, Francois Haasbroek makes 1500 litres of this profound wine, which is named after Hitchcock’s first movie, released in 1927. It is pressed to concrete egg and then doesn’t move, and is bottled straight from the egg. It’s not a flor wine, although by the end there is a white layer of yeasts on the top, so this might be flor activity. Linear, floral and pretty. Perfumed with some bright apple notes. Saline, juicy and linear, with subtle nutty notes. 95/100

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