Helderberg cellars account for three of the Top 10 in SA Cabernet Report
100 SUBMISSIONS from 78 producers was an impressive level of involvement by the South African wine industry in Winemag’s 2020 Prescient Cabernet Sauvignon Report. Most of the top seeds participated, the majority of the country’s benchmark Cabs on the tasting bench for assessment by the panel comprising editor Christian Eedes (chair) with fine wine retailers Roland Peens and James Pietersen of Wine Cellar, Cape Town. It was to be expected that Stellenbosch outfits would prevail, exceptions among the judges’ favourites being Babylonstoren of Paarl and Diemersdal of Durbanville. The 2018 Babylonstoren was also one of the best-value Cabs together with the 2017 Major Series of Ernie Els in the foothills of the Helderberg, Stellenbosch – both R200 a bottle at source, compared with the overall average of R385pb.
Another of the standouts was from another Helderberg cellar, the 2017 Le Riche Reserve the latest of many good vintages that position this specialist right up there in the SA Cab Classification. And also from the Helderberg: Douwe Steyn, honouring the person who founded Stellenrust back in 1692, the same man credited with heading up the building of the castle in Cape Town. Interestingly, Stellenrust is currently selling the 2012 vintage of their flagship red, having recently moved on from the 2011, whereas the cellar entered no fewer than five wines spanning the period 2013 to 2017 for review in the Winemag Report – all of them originating from vines planted over 50 years ago.
TOP 10 IN CAB REPORT
Babylonstoren 2018
R200pb ex-cellar, Simonsberg-Paarl
Bellevue Reserve Collection 2018
R220pb ex-cellar, Bottelary, Stellenbosch
Diemersdal Journal 2018
R320pb ex-cellar, Durbanville
Ernie Els Major Series 2017
R200pb ex-cellar, Helderberg, Stellenbosch
Le Riche Reserve 2017
R620pb ex-cellar, Helderberg, Stellenbosch
Oldenburg 2018
R245pb ex-cellar, Banghoek, Stellenbosch
Reyneke Reserve 2017
R850pb ex-cellar, Polkadraai Hills, Stellenbosch
Stark-Condé Stellenbosch 2017
R275pb ex-cellar, Jonkershoek Valley, Stellenbosch
Stellenrust Douwe Steyn 2015
R590pb ex-cellar, Helderberg, Stellenbosch
Tokara Reserve Collection 2017
R330pb ex-cellar, Helshoogte, Simonsberg-Stellenbosch
The Douwe Steyn wines are library items. Bottelary vines. The current vintage is actually 2017 but we sell across the board from 2011 to 2017 to give people access to them all. I think it is imperative that people see the age-worthiness of Stellenbosch Cab, and I wanted to see how the vintages stack up to each other on someone else’s palate…