Collector's Corner

Peter Finlayson has reviewed and tasted the vintage wine stock, selecting the finest vintages as coveted additions to private collections:

Tête De Cuvée Pinot Noir 2006 – Rich and Robust

Deftly balanced, rich and dark-coloured with plum and pretty floral, fruity aromatics. Luscious tannins which call one back into the glass – very appealing on the polished after taste! 15 months in French oak.

Trophy Winner - Old Mutual Trophy Awards, 2008

Galpin Peak Pinot Noir 1998 - Wonderful definition and beautifully balanced

Attractive optimal ripe fruit with cherry and oak scents. These combine to give great definition. It is firm and has a nicely balanced middleweight with tight aromatic tannins, which have softened beautifully over the years of maturation. 10 months in French Oak, with 25% new wood compliment striking a fine balance with the rich fruit in the wine.

Sans Barrique Chardonnay 2009 - Lively and vibrant

Vintage 2009 Sans Barrique has been naturally produced with an emphatic fruit purity and minerality, an unwooded Chardonnay. Great length from tantalizingly luscious acidity. Strong hints of peach and kiwi fruit with a few drops of lemon!

Galpin Peak Pinot Noir 2001 - An excellent wine with soft tannins

The nose is aromatically scented with exciting whiffs of truffles and fruits of the forest. The wine is full with soft tannins, which have ensured many years of positive development. An excellent crop and an excellent wine! 10 months in French Oak, with 30% new wood compliment.

Winner - Classic Wine Trophy, 2002
Gold Medal – Juliet Cullinan Wine Competition, 2005

Kaaimansgat Limited Edition Chardonnay 2011 - An innovative wine

The element of innovation is presented by blending a classic barrel-fermented (new French oak) portion of Chardonnay (50%) with a fruity non-malo unwooded portion (50%). The new wood compliment provides added vanilla and toasted hazelnut tones. The wine is broad and powerful with a firm underlying structure that allows the lemon, toast and peach flavours to exaggerate as it matures! The firm streak of fruit acid binds the structure and graces the finish.

Crocodile’s Lair / Kaaimansgat Chardonnay 2007 - Rich and fruitful

Grown at a high elevation of 700 meters in a blind mountain valley behind the village of Villiersdorp where this location is more reminiscent of the Swiss Alps than a typical South African Vineyard site. 2007 is a great vintage where clean fruit offers a tight but full flavoured peachy wine which elicits a hint of oak, vanilla and green apple. Fermentation is a classic Burgundian copy where the wine is matured “sur lie” for eight months in traditional 225 litre “pieces” with 25% being first fill barrels.