I have just reviewed Crystallum Pinot Noir Mabalel 2023, next up is Crystallum Pinot Noir Cuvée Cinéma 2023. When you read about it, this is a wine with all the right signs.
The wine is a barrel selection from a high density planted vineyard of disease-free Burgundy Pinot clones that was vinified with 60% whole clusters. The wine was matured in small oak barrels for 11 months, with 25% of them being new oak.
These are all things I could get very excited about, but I will save you the massive spiel. If you do not know why these properties of the wine growing and élevage are laudable, feel free to ask and I will explode opinions at you (in my own good time).
One thing I will go into here is the name: Cuvée Cinéma. The location the vineyard was planted was used for filming scenes from a film about the life of Napoleon. So: ‘Cinéma’! Easy!
This is the latest release, and I just did a quick search on Wine-Searcher and you can pick up Crystallum Pinot Noir Cuvée Cinéma 2023 for between £43-45 (incl. tax). That is definitely a premium wine but is far from a fortune for a wine with this much love lavished upon it. Is it worth it?
Put on your lucky tasting socks and find out along with me!
Pinot Noir Cuvée Cinéma 2023, Crystallum
As I have popped this and poured a taste it seems a little reductive, so I am going to pour it into a jug, splash it around a bit, and leave it for 20 minutes before I get down to business.
20 minutes later…
Lordy, this Crystallum Pinot Noir Cuvée Cinéma 2023 is rather a stunner. Lovely, lovely cherry and raspberry fruit. Expressive and deeply characterful but not overt, overripe or overblown. Simply delightful!
Once again, there is a subtle hint of raspberry leaf, slightly spiky, savoury, vague greenness here*. This works satisfyingly well with the perfectly ripe fruit to give it energy, complexity and a dash of verve. It is perfectly integrated and sits harmoniously with the fruit.
I get a hint of oak vanillin/spice, but I find this Crystallum Pinot Noir Cuvée Cinéma 2023 a hint less showy about its oak than the Crystallum Pinot Noir Cuvée Mabalel but we are talking fractions of degrees of difference here.
The oak ageing does give the nose a sense of breadth and dimension, indeed the nose positively throbs with dimension and is most pleasing for the lover of fine things.
So, to the lips! Two things immediately grab me about the Crystallum Pinot Noir Cuvée Cinéma 2023, the lubriciously sweet fruit and the tannin. Starting with the latter:-
It is quite tannic with fruit, oak and those greenish, savoury, spiky tannins on show, but do remember this wine is only a year old! Give the kid a chance, man!
You can either embrace the energy of the tannins at this young age, revel in their life and spunk and get a big thrill with their harmony with the rest of the wine; or you can age this wine for 6-8 years and have a more mellow and relaxed experience. With age I would still expect these tannins to have great harmony.
I like those tannins, but the fruit is so scrumptious it would charm a Scotsman with a grudge. In the rain. It never strays into being overripe, heavy or overblown, but there is ample depth, a sumptuous roundness, and an abundance of complexity to it.
This wine has good length, with raspberry and strawberry fruit persisting along with savoury hints and a subtle growl of oak. Great balance is on show all the way through this wine. Top bunny.
So, yes, this is easily worth forty-five coins, indeed it is quite keenly priced at that level. It is made with skill, care, and passion and delivers complexity, style and god-damn class.
I hope you get the idea that I enjoyed this distinctly South African Pinot Noir, because I did, and I think you would enjoy it too. Good price, good wine.
*I have been asked if this is South African-style or house-style. Let us go back in time to the dark, dark days of the early 1990s. I remember a tasting given by Peter-Allan Finlayson’s dad at Oxford with his outfit Bouchard Finlayson. Obviously, this is over 30 years ago when my palate was less formed than it is now, but I distinctly remember being quite taken by a spiky, savoury note in the wines that I thought made them very enjoyable. So, this is either
South African-style or family-style!
Note: This review was made possible by a sample bottle from one of the owners of Crystallum, Peter-Allan Finlayson, via the Cystallum UK agents Liberty Wines (contact them for purchasing) or use Wine-Searcher. Neither Mr Finlayson nor Liberty Wines saw or commented on this review prior to publication and, as ever, Elitistreview is not for sale.
