2013 The Sadie Family Wines, Columella, Swartland, South Africa

2013 The Sadie Family Wines, Columella, Swartland, South Africa

Product: 20131125403
 
2013 The Sadie Family Wines, Columella, Swartland, South Africa

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Available by the case In Bond. Pricing excludes duty and VAT, which must be paid separately before delivery. Storage charges apply.
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Description

Eben Sadie’s top level blend of Syrah, Mourvèdre, Grenache, Carignan and Cinsault is fragrant and beautifully pure in 2013. There is a crunchy, fresh blueberry aspect to the nose which has an intriguing, subtle note of wild basil. Softer notes of bramble fruit continue on the palate which has a smooth, svelte texture and incredibly fine tannins with noticeable grip. The wine has great freshness and finesse, suggesting impressive ageing potential. Eben believes this might just make it become one of the most unique bottlings to date.
Catriona Felstead MW, New World Buyer

wine at a glance

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Critics reviews

Wine Advocate96/100
The 2013 Columella is matured for ten months in cask with 10% new oak, and then another ten months in foudres; Eben believes this slows down the maturation. It has a very complex bouquet, mercurial on the nose, and bestowed with wild strawberry and cranberry scents, incense and a hint of marmalade that is beautifully detailed. The palate is medium-bodied, extremely refined and mineral-laden, symmetrical and standing on tip-toes on the finish -- something that this label could not do when Eben started. It is compact at the moment, but it will turn into an astonishing Swartland wine.
Neal Martin - 30/11/2015 Read more
Other4.5
Like 2012, transcendent, rich & complex 2013 (5 stars) 8-way chenin-led blend fermented in concrete 'eggs' & clay pots; time on lees weaves textures & generous flavours into harmonious, elemental core. Immense interest & charm; accessible, but for the long haul. These in larger formats too.
Platter Wine Guide, wineonaplatter.com, Oct 2015 Read more

About this WINE

The Sadie Family Wines

The Sadie Family Wines

Eben Sadie started his winemaking career working for Charles Back’s Spice Route-labelled wines before breaking out on his own in 1999. Since the first release of Columella with the 2000 vintage, he has acquired a reputation as the most innovative and inspired winemaker in South Africa.

His goal is to produce an expression of a region or specific site. This is the philosophy that drives the production of his Signature Series wines – Columella and Palladius. Columella (predominantly Syrah with a little Mourvèdre, Grenache, Carignan and Cinsault) is one of South Africa’s very best wines, if not the best, named after one of the wine trade’s earliest scribes. It is a blend of old-vine fruit from eight Swartland vineyards, spending 24 months in oak (with only a small proportion that is new) and is racked every six months. Eben’s white wine, Palladius, is arguably more impressive still; it is a delicious blend of 11 varieties from 17 different vineyard sites, with old, bush-vine Chenin Blanc playing the leading role.

The Signature Series was joined by the Old Vine Series (Die Ouwingerdreeks in Africaans) with its first commercial release in 2010. This range of wines is the fruition of a project very close to Eben’s heart. He worked with renowned viticulturalist, Rosa Kruger, to seek out, revitalise, and in some cases, save old vineyards throughout the Cape. These highly sought-after wines are produced in very limited volumes and offer an incredible vinous insight into South Africa’s grape growing and winemaking history. These, and the Signature Series, are incredible wines from a winemaker at the top of his game.

It is hardly surprising that Sadie Family Wines has been awarded the title of the Platter Guide’s Winery of the Year twice (in 2010 and 2015).

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Swartland

Swartland

After Stellenbosch, the west coast district of Swartland (25 miles due north of Cape Town, between the towns of Malmesbury and Piketberg) now ranks as the Cape's most exciting wine-producing district.

Settled initially by nomadic Khoikhoi from Namibia, the Dutch brought trade and vines to the region in the 17th century. Viticulture was developed only more recently.

This contrasts with an ancient geology which has brought a mix of shale, arenite sandstone and granite soils air-conditioned by the Atlantic Ocean nearby.

Chenin Blanc and Shiraz seem to do best, as exemplified by the wines of Eben Sadie and Mullineux.

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Syrah/Shiraz

Syrah/Shiraz

A noble black grape variety grown particularly in the Northern Rhône where it produces the great red wines of Hermitage, Cote Rôtie and Cornas, and in Australia where it produces wines of startling depth and intensity. Reasonably low yields are a crucial factor for quality as is picking at optimum ripeness. Its heartland, Hermitage and Côte Rôtie, consists of 270 hectares of steeply terraced vineyards producing wines that brim with pepper, spices, tar and black treacle when young. After 5-10 years they become smooth and velvety with pronounced fruit characteristics of damsons, raspberries, blackcurrants and loganberries.

It is now grown extensively in the Southern Rhône where it is blended with Grenache and Mourvèdre to produce the great red wines of Châteauneuf du Pape and Gigondas amongst others. Its spiritual home in Australia is the Barossa Valley, where there are plantings dating as far back as 1860. Australian Shiraz tends to be sweeter than its Northern Rhône counterpart and the best examples are redolent of new leather, dark chocolate, liquorice, and prunes and display a blackcurrant lusciousness.

South African producers such as Eben Sadie are now producing world- class Shiraz wines that represent astonishing value for money.

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