2005 Vergelegen, Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, South Africa

2005 Vergelegen, Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, South Africa

Product: 8943
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2005 Vergelegen, Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, South Africa

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Description

A relatively cool year, so a challenge for the winemakers to achieve full ripeness, but André has succeeded admirably. In youth the tannins were very much in evidence, but with 6 years of maturity the wine has now blossomed and softened beautifully.

About 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, with a dash each of Merlot and Cabernet Franc, the wine displays gorgeous cassis and plum notes on the bouquet, firm savoury flavours on the palate with a lovely harmony between the varietals, the tannins and the acidity. 70% new oak, in which the wine has been aged for 2 years, is scarcely perceptible, such is the density and concentration, and the whole bears more than a passing resemblance to Classed Growth Bordeaux.

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About this WINE

Vergelegen Estate

Vergelegen Estate

Vergelegen is one of the oldest-established and celebrated wine estates in the Cape wine region of Stellenbosch, and today enjoys a reputation as one of South Africa’s, and indeed the world’s, premium wine producers. Ownership has passed through numerous hands since the first Governor of the Cape, a visionary Dutchman called Adriaan van der Stel, took it over in 1700 and converted a wilderness into a thriving farm.

Each owner has left their mark on the estate and since 1987 Vergelegen has been the property of Anglo-American, the global mining giant, a Company which has invested millions not only into the regeneration of the vineyards but has also fostered an extensive programme of conservation. The latter scheme involves clearing 2,000 hectares of land infested with alien vegetation and allowing natural Cape flora and fauna to be restored.

As far as the wines are concerned, enormous amounts of research have been conducted to identify the optimum areas for planting each varietal (Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc), while in 1992 a fabulous new winery was built on four levels with the emphasis on simplicity, minimum use of machines, and gravity flow.

The final piece of the jigsaw was the engagement of André van Rensburg as winemaker. André is a legendary figure in South African wine circles, a larger-than-life character in every sense of the word. He makes a wide range of wines but is particularly successful when working with Bordeaux varietals, a skill for which 2 awards, in 2001 and 2003, of the Pichon Longueville Trophy for the Best Red Blend in the International Wine Challenge, bear eloquent testimony.

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Cabernet Sauvignon

Cabernet Sauvignon

The most famous red wine grape in the world and one of the most widely planted.

It is adaptable to a wide range of soils, although it performs particularly well on well-drained, low-fertile soils. It has small, dusty, black-blue berries with thick skins that produce deeply coloured, full-bodied wines with notable tannins. Its spiritual home is the Médoc and Graves regions of Bordeaux where it thrives on the well-drained gravel-rich soils producing tannic wines with piercing blackcurrant fruits that develop complex cedarwood and cigar box nuances when fully mature.

The grape is widely planted in California where Cabernet Sauvignon based wines are distinguished by their rich mixture of cassis, mint, eucalyptus and vanilla oak. It is planted across Australia and with particular success in Coonawarra where it is suited to the famed Terra Rossa soil. In Italy barrique aged Cabernet Sauvignon is a key component in Super Tuscans such as Tignanello and Sassicaia, either on its own or as part of a blend with Sangiovese.

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