Are we there yet is a Syrah/Touriga Nacional-blend from South Africa’s Duncan Savage. We like Duncan’s wines, some may be butch, but some are beautiful. All are very good!
Readers’ with long memories are not drinking enough, but may recall that I reviewed the 2018 of this in March of last year. Jolly nice it was too!
Are we there there yet? Yes, let us commence!
Are we there yet 2020, Duncan Savage
Lovely buxom cheery fruit here, delicious. This fades into bramble/hedgerow types of berries which are vaguely reminiscent of Zinfandel.
But this is 13%! It is Zinfandel for civilised people! It is quite svelte and elegant as well, with no new oak slathered on it to flatten its charm.
There is plenty of freshly-ground pepper, a hint of earthiness and some hedgerow leafiness as well. Lovely and fruity, civilised and charming, shades of complexity. A wonderful nose to enjoy with great pleasure.
The tannic structure is soft and accessible, not the degree of extraction that one finds in some South African wines. It is energetic and fresh, just the kind of thing you want to drink at the end of a long week in Number Ten.
It is richly fruity as well, with lots of cherry and those bramble fruits bursting on your palate. The pepperiness of South African Syrah is here in abundance as well.
There is a bit of earth character and that raspberry/blackberry leaf edginess which add to the complexity of this wine, but it is not the most involute glassful you are ever going to drink. It does not need to be, though, it is completely delicious and sometimes that is enough.
This is a refreshing, fruity drink that charges one with vigour. If you want to pop a bottle with your workmates in the office during lockdown, they will be impressed by this whatever at any rank that address occupies.
