Yesterday I had a trip to bayerskloof and tasted all upper wines. The icon wines were so balanced and good. Especially the pinotage from krik terroir.
After i had a private tour with the winemaker (daughter of the owner)
They produce over 1 milion bottles of just the kadette entry wine. And all wines are barrel aged. You can just imagine how many barrels they had.
Now to the wines. Not a huge fan of the kadette range but the paul sauer was soo good.
The 2022 black lable might be one of the best SA wines i ever had. So fruity mature at 2022 and complex.
I dont wanna post 25 notes now so ask my for any of the wines and ill post my notes ( i had all wines/ black lable 2009/2022 and the Cap sauv at 2003/2020/2022)
by SoilSweet8555
6 Comments
I don’t get the hate for South Africa. Here in the UK it’s often a go to for great value at every price point. I get that pinotage is not everyone’s cup of tea, and I tend to avoid it, but I’ve had some exceptional wines from SA, and for me they often over-perform for the price.
Kanonkop 👌…. ‘21 vintage is being rated as one of the best yet…
Finally? Eben Sadie, Hamilton Russel and Newton Johnson have entered the chat
Absolutely!! The pinotage is my favorite
Both Bayerskloof and Kanonkop makes great wine, but far from the only. The problem is that most of our great wines are smaller quantity productions, so they are hard to find abroad.
We have so much great wine being produced at the moment that there is actually an abundance of world class wines where 95%+ of them are priced between $15 and $40 locally. Especially Chenin and Syrah. When it comes to Pinotage and Bordeaux blends, there aren’t THAT many world class wines, but these two are definitely among them.
Kanonkop’s Black Label Pinotage is simply on another level (and a price to match), they don’t really consider it Pinotage, “more of a red wine” as said by the winemaker at a tasting. When you taste it you kinda get it, it’s absolutely amazing and while it is unique compared to Bordeaux varieties, it also feels very different to the average Pinotage. They also age incredibly well.
While those are OK wines, there are plenty of other SA wines: Brookdale, Stark-Conte, Simonsing, Glenelly…
All pretty nicely priced as well.