South African winery releases a wine more expensive than the country’s four most-expensive wines combined.
4G Wines, established just five years ago, has launched not one but two $360 South African wines in the U.S. and they’re already claiming to be the “First Growth of the Cape”.
Both wines, 2010 G and 2011 G are a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Merlot, with the other Bordeaux red varieties making up the numbers. The fruit has been sourced from the vast area known as the Western Cape and both hit 15 percent alcohol.
In a statement released by the U.S. distributor, Cult & Icon, Master Sommelier Frank Kämmer said: > “It’s quite obvious that this wine will become the next Screaming Eagle.” Another Master Sommelier likened the brand to Penfolds Grange, > which first put Australian wine on connoisseurs’ lists.
Previously, the most expensive South African* wine was Vergelegen V Red, which topped out at an average price of $94 (ex. sales tax), followed by $89 for Bouchard Finlayson Tete de Cuvee Galpin Peak Pinot Noir from Walker Bay. In fact, one could buy a bottle of the four next most-expensive bottles of South African wine for less than the price of one bottle of 4G.
The brand is backed by an eminent winemaking team: Denis Dubourdieu, a Professor of Oenology at University of Bordeaux, winemaking consultant, and owner of several Bordeaux châteaux, is involved. Longtime South African winemaker Giorgio Dalla Cia, formerly of Meerlust, is also on board.
The Wine Advocate’s Neal Martin gave the 2010 wine 91 points in December 2012. He wrote: “Each of the 3410 bottles comes in an engraved wooden box inside which the wine is slipped into a black velvet glove. It took this writer around 15 minutes to work out how to undo the screws. The bottle weighs a ton and it is pure eye candy … It is unashamedly expensive. Cue drum roll. Does it live up to the billing? There is cynical part of me that wanted to rip this wine apart for such flagrant self-aggrandizing, but it is a very well crafted wine.”
So it’s the next wildly overrated and overpriced wine that will be ignored by pretty much everyone other than habitual resellers? Lofty aspirations indeed.
One of my accounts had mentioned this wine and were joking about it.
The sales rep only had this wine and was using a Coravin, when the Somm had asked to retaste the wine after the first pour, the rep said that he couldn’t, that it was one pour per person…
I kinda like the label, but hate the heavy bottle, individual wood case, and baseless position pricing. this will be a hit in vegas and steakhouses everywhere.
Reminds me of the first release of the Kluge New World Red here in Virginia. Priced at $~500 , it came in a special box and was produced in consultation with Michel Rolland. $500. In Virginia, mind you.
Subsequent releases were considerably cheaper, and a few years later the entire enterprise imploded and you could buy the remainders at local wine shops for about $12. Great wine for $12.
For a walk down memory lane: http://www.winesandvines.com/template.cfm?section=news&content=80922
So I went to a dinner in Dallas and tasted these wines alongside Mouton Rothschild and Penfolds grange. I can post more detailed notes later, but I will say the wines are quite good. They are rich full bodied wines and while very tasty, I think the price will be the killer here. Nowhere near worth that kind of money. They have spent a remarkable amount of money on this project from the wine making team to the label to the packaging. Anyway tasty juice but not worth the coin.
Makes the RdV wines look like they’re giving it away at $75 and $95. But to be honest, the RdV wines are MUCH closer to being worth their price than anything in the Kluge lineup ever were.
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