Back in October, Montreal’s wine bar Les Cavistes hosted a virtual wine tasting featuring four wines from South Africa. These were all new wines to me and I was quite excited to discover them.
One of the wines was P.O.W. from Natte Valleij in honour of an Italian prisoner of war (P.O.W.) captured and exiled to the Cape to spend the duration of the Second World War on the grounds of Natte Valleij. As indicated on Natte Valleij’s website: “the inscription P.O.W. B.T. 27/12/1943 is our only reminder of his stay. In his honour, we have hand-crafted this limited release wine.” A great blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot.
We then moved to the Pearce Predhomme Cinsault-Syrah. This wine has an interesting story as described in Nicholas Pearce Wines’ website since it’s “a collaboration between Nicholas Pearce and Will Predhomme to create wines from their favourite regions. This Cinsault/Syrah is made from bush vines planted in Koffieklip soils in the Southwestern of Stellenbosch, South Africa.”
Our final red wine was the Wanderer’s Heart from Thorne & Daughters, an exciting blend of five varietals: Grenache noir, Cinsault, Grenache gris, Mourvèdre and Syrah. The winemaker explains his choice this way:
“Our blend was certain to include Cinsault for its long history in the Cape and ability to deliver light, yet profound wines. Grenache has a great future in the Cape, where it is able to produce high quality wines in dryland conditions, and for its ability to express its origins. Mourvèdre produces wild and idiosyncratic wines that lend a certain generosity and pleasure to the blend. Syrah, though widely planted in the Cape, speaks to me more as a supporting role, lending its cool fruit and perfume to the wine.”
The fourth wine of this virtual wine tasting was a chenin blanc – one of my favourite white wines. We tasted the Axle Chenin Blanc from the wine region of Darling and part of the Natte Valleij Wines. I love the explanation of the winemaker: “Being a family business here at Natte Valleij Wines, you make wines for each other. My wife loves Chenin blanc, so I decided to make her one. These dryland bush vines planted in 1985 and grown in Darling are an epitome of old South African bush vine Chenin blanc.”
These wines can be ordered through Jéroboam, Les Cavistes’ private import agency.
This wine tasting just got me more curious to discover more wines from South Africa. What is your favourite wine from SA?