South African Cabs really a contender?

Are their cab wines really worth seeking out?
Speaking honestly I never tried it and always laughed at even the thought of buying one. Has time changed?

not just their cabs, but a lot of South African wines overall have been really impressing me over the past year. Even better, is that if one is to spend like $40-50 they are effectively buying the top end of South African wine. If you keep an open mind, you may be more than pleasantly surprised by the quality coming from RSA

I think it’s very possible, though it will take some time. I’ve had great cabs from South Africa, and they are a huge value. Once it gets popular, though, there goes the value

shhhhh

Since the end of apartheid the wines have become better every year. Shockingly better. And don’t overlook Syrah. May be better than the Cab blends.

There’s even some good Pinotage, of all things.

And Chenin Blanc of course.

Some killer Syrah is coming out of SA. Bellinghams Bernard Series SMV is such a great wine.

Yes on all of the above. I will say that I have some Cabs from the 1990s that are really singing right now. I think in the early 2000s they may have been caught by the Parker bug – but like most places I think they have swung away from that. My experience is that for the money these wines are some of the best produced. If you are in SA the wines are so much cheaper that it barely makes sense to drink anything else. I remember in the 1990s (when admittedly there was less foreign wine in the local SA market), that you could not find a wine that cost more than the equivalent of $15 – except for the basic Mondavi bulk wine, which was selling for 40. Yes, over twice as much as the best local wine. Now the wines are a bit pricier – I don’t think they are overpriced, I just don’t think they are the amazing value they used to be – unless you are in SA itself.

Yes, there’s a lot of exciting wine coming out of SA. As someone who generally leans toward European over New World wines, I’ve found the best SA wines more to my liking than most New World bottles. That’s painting with a broad brush, I know, but for value and balance in a New World wine, I think SA is hard to beat.

I don’t have much experience with SA cabs, but a Warwick cab I had ~10 years ago showed very well with 10 years or so of age.

I tasted there in the mid 1980s and it was impressive then. I remember it for white wines, though. What varietals, white and red, are being produced now that are considered very good? (And is the red just a cab, or are there Bordeaux blends considered strong?) It is a very beautiful area.

Glenelly can stand in with top-rank BDX.

There are some lovely red Bdx blends. I am a bit out of the scene now, but Warwick as mentioned by John makes some good ones. Vergegelen. Some excellent syrahs – some are too new worldy for me, but some are lovely. The whites are fantastic – particularly semillon, chenin, and sauv blanc. Cape Point is worth seeking out. Also Warwick. Another good red to seek is Sutherland, and Thelema. But there are so many now. I am sure there are many others as good or better than what I just mentioned here.

I am intrigued in trying some now. I will most likely start with Pinotage.

Pinotage is a tough one. Some of them are excellent. But some are pretty pedestrian. Kanonkop is supposed to make a very good one – they also do good Bdx blends.

Good examples of SA BDX wines have old world character and complexity, but with some more generosity of fruit, and often far cheaper than comparable wines from France and the uSA.

Rustenberg John X Merriman is a huge overachiever in this category.

Pinotage is the last place to start. It’s an intensely divisive varietal that many people really do not like, and it’s not a quality issue IMO.

In answer to the general question, yes SA is producing some top class wine, and has long been a source of great value BDX blends. Chenin and increasingly Chardonnay can be excellent, too.

There are plenty of producers making world class Syrah, too. Porseleinberg for example. Mullineux have long been doing their thing very well, and then many others across the varietal spectrum like Eben Sadie, David Sadie, Boekenhoutskloof, Meerlust, Migliarina, Newton Johnson, Rustenberg, Vergelegen, Foundry, Elgin…the list goes on, and these days it’s a very long list.

The Platter awards are one of the few in the world that are really quite reliable, if you need more inspiration.

Apropos of this topic, I see an old thread on Hamilton Russell’s pinots and chardonnays has come back to life. The winery has a good, long track record of making excellent, balanced wines.

Visited SA almost two years ago for our honeymoon and we fell in love with Meerlust Rubicon, the 2010 specifically. So great that TW always has some in stock. Popped open a 2010 for our 1st Anniversary.

I really liked these (see CT for TNs)

2003 Reyneke Shiraz Reserve

2011 Tokara Director’s Reserve

also very good
2007 Kanonkop Estate Wine Pinotage

yea, you probably shouldn’t start there. Starting with good bordeaux blends from Stellenbosch, rhone varietal wines from Swartland, or Kershaw from Elgin would all be much better than Pinotage.

Visited 3 different times from '98 to '02. My buddy who lives in RSA worked in the biz years ago. (He is now a safari operator/tour director). With his connections we visited numerous smaller producers (I kept no notes) and had lots of fun. I was super impressed with so many dry white blends with Combard/Chenin/SB. Will agree that many of the syrahs were stellar.