{"id":9458,"date":"2014-03-18T05:28:51","date_gmt":"2014-03-18T05:28:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/?p=9458"},"modified":"2014-03-18T05:28:51","modified_gmt":"2014-03-18T05:28:51","slug":"some-lovely-older-south-african-wines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/sauvignon-blanc\/some-lovely-older-south-african-wines","title":{"rendered":"Some lovely older South African wines"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"OLYMPUS
\nSo I arrived here in St James, Cape Town, South Africa, in time for lunch. It was with the other judges of the Top 100<\/a> competition that I am participating in, and it was accompanied by some older South African wines.<\/p>\n

We began with decade-old Sauvignon. These are wines you wouldn’t have expected to age well. But these bottles were lovely. They were followed up by a selection of older reds, most of which showed really well too. <\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/p>\n

Springfield Estate Life From Stone Sauvignon Blanc 2004 Robertson, South Africa
\n<\/strong>Powerful green herbal notes but these have integrated well, to create a seamless, textured wine with some crystalline fruit quality and just a hint of mushroom. Surprisingly delicious: I wouldn’t have expected a methoxypyrazine dominated wine like this to have aged so well. 90\/100<\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/p>\n

Neil Ellis Sauvignon Blanc Vineyard Selection Groenekloof 2004 South Africa
\n<\/strong>Lovely rich texture here with sweet pear, spice, peach and toast notes. Intense, quite rich, textured and ripe. 92\/100<\/p>\n

Cape Point Isleidh 2004 South Africa
\n<\/strong>Amazing wine: toasty and rich but with fine grapefruit and sweet quince, pear and peach notes. Toasty and bold yet delicate at the same time. 93\/100
\n\"OLYMPUS<\/p>\n

Steenberg Sauvignon Blanc 2004 Constantia, South Africa
\n<\/strong>Very fresh and pure with some nice green herby notes as well as lemon and grapefruit. Nice precision and good texture. 90\/100<\/p>\n

Steeenberg Sauvignon Blanc 2005 Constantia, South Africa
\n<\/strong>Some green herbal notes with citrus and a subtle toasty character. 89\/100
\n\"OLYMPUS<\/p>\n

Cape Point Sauvignon Blanc 2004 South Africa
\n<\/strong>Fresh with some green herby notes, lovely texture and a bit of toastiness. There’s precision and freshness to this wine. Nice depth. 91\/100<\/p>\n

Rust en Vrede Cabernet Sauvignon 1998 Stellenbosch, South Africa
\n<\/strong>13% alcohol. Sweet, warm and cedary with a hint of earth and spice. Really smart and elegant with smoothness and sweetness. 92\/100<\/p>\n

Cordoba Crescendo 1998 Stellenbosch, South Africa
\n<\/strong>13.5% alcohol, a Cabernet Franc-dominated wine. Sweet, cedary, spicy and warm with powerful blackcurrant and blackberry fruit. Warm, attractive and spicy with nice depth. 91\/100
\n\"OLYMPUS<\/p>\n

Cederberg V Generations 2004 Cederberg, South Africa<\/strong>
\n14% alcohol. 100% new French oak. Sweet blackcurrant fruit nose with herb and tobacco notes. Rich, warm, spicy palate with smooth tannins and lots of berryish fruit. A ripe, seamless style. 91\/100<\/p>\n

Meerlust Rubicon 2001 Stellenbosch, South Africa<\/strong>
\nSweet, warm and spicy with powerful blackcurrant bud and blackberry notes, as well as some tar. Warm and intense with nice tannic grip. A powerful wine that’s still youthful and a bit angular. 92\/100
\n\"OLYMPUS<\/p>\n

Rustenberg Peter Barlow 1999 Stellenbosch, South Africa<\/strong>
\nDense, sweet and ripe with blackcurrant and berry fruit, with a spicy undercurrent. 90\/100<\/p>\n

Rustenberg John X Merriman 1999 Stellenbosch, South Africa<\/strong>
\nThis is in a good place at the moment and outperforms its big brother. Floral and aromatic with fresh blackberry and blackcurrant fruit, with a hint of leafiness. Amazing silky texture. 93\/100<\/p>\n

Le Riche Cabernet Sauvignon 1999 Stellenbosch, South Africa<\/strong>
\n12.5% alcohol. Full, gravelly with blackcurrant and sweet berry fruits. Some grip, too. 91\/100<\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/p>\n

Jordan CWG Sophia 2006 Stellenbosch, South Africa<\/strong>
\n13.5% alcohol, 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Cabernet Franc, 30% Merlot. Fresh, gravelly, with lovely bright blackcurrant fruit. Really dense, precise and pure with nice weight and real finesse. 93\/100
\n\"OLYMPUS<\/p>\n

Klein Constantia Vin de Constance 2000 Constantia, South Africa<\/strong>
\nBronze\/gold colour. Sweet, concentrated, bold and rich with spice, raisins, tea leaves, herbs, apricots and honey. Complex and textured, this is lovely. 95\/100 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So I arrived here in St James, Cape Town, South Africa, in time for lunch. It was with the other judges of the Top 100 competition that I am participating…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,49],"tags":[355,374],"class_list":["post-9458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sauvignon-blanc","category-south-africa","tag-sauvignon-blanc","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9458"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9471,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9458\/revisions\/9471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}