WHITES from Tokara and Raats, reds from Haut Espoir, La Bri, Rustenberg, Remhoogte and Tokara, sweets from Nederburg and Boplaas… The top-scoring South African producers in Winemag’s 10 Year Old Report 2019.

To quote Christian Eedes, who chaired the three-man panel that included Roland Peens and James Pietersen of Cape Town merchant Wine Cellar: “The 2009 vintage is generally considered one of the greatest of the modern era… Based on this tasting, 2009’s much eulogised status is well deserved… Perhaps what differentiates a great vintage from the merely ordinary is that there are more wines which undergo a transformation that renders them both more gratifying and more fascinating than they were on release… In the case of 2008s tasted last year, the majority of the wines were merely holding up rather than having undergone some magical transformation – time, in most instances, bringing a certain mellowness rather than real complexity and refinement… This time around there were wines that had gained significantly due to the passage of time.”

Apart from a much-fancied, fortified Cape Port from Boplaas of Calitzdorp which must have decades of life ahead of it still, the wine that delighted the panel most on the day was the 2009 Peter Barlow Cab from Rustenberg of Stellenbosch: 94/100. A fitting performance from one of the Cape’s first growths!

Full report here.