After a string of piss-boring wines that were beneath my ability to stomach half a bottle of, today I am reporting on a wine that promises real quality: Le Riche Reserve Cabernet 2021 from Stellenbosch in South Africa
If you will indulge me (if you will not just scroll down to the note), I want to start with a digression. Some people will view a Cabernet Sauvignon from a non-Bordeaux region as a boring attempt to clone Claret and thus not an authentic wine worthy of impassioned examination. I have a few points to make about this.
Firstly, Cabernet Sauvignon gets a perhaps slightly unfair rap from some people. There is the ABC (Anything But Cabernet/Chardonnay) clique and more generally its international ubiquity seems to be frowned upon.
It is true Cabernet Sauvignon has been imported and planted bloody everywhere, including a lot of places it should not be. This is true of Cabernet Sauvignon more so than most grapes, but it is not the only imported invader.
People may frown upon Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon, but Swartland Syrah is just as much of a grape import phenomenon and, generally, people feel OK about that. There is no inherent problem in importing a grape ‘culture’ to a region with no long history of grape growing – Cabernet is just quite flexible about where it can be grown.
Sometimes these imported grape cultures can be quite serendipitous. Within the huge cellar full of the best wines I’ve ever tried are both Swartland Syrah and Stellenbosch Cabernet.
This brings me to my second point, namely that not all Cabernet Sauvignon outposts produce Claret clones. Often an area has unique qualities it can bring to a wine.
Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon is unusually fresh, with lots of energy, due to the cooling influence of the Atlantic Ocean nearby. The oceanic breezes also keep a lot of pathogens from developing on the grapes. So Stellenbosch makes fresh, clean and pure Cabernet.
The main character I find in Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon that I try to use as a blind tasting reference is a strong herbaceous, floral property.
Those who have been in South Africa say this is the character of the scrub herb fynbos that grows around the vines. I have not, so have not encountered any, but I am quite prepared to believe the herbal character I detect so strongly is the one people term thusly.
Finally, one has to ask what one means by ‘authenticity’ or the ‘alien nature of Cabernet’ when a person is setting up a new winery.
Le Riche is a family operation, and individuals rarely set up wineries for hard-nosed commercial reasons. The reason for this is encapsuled in the trade joke, “How do make a small fortune in the wine trade? Start off with a large one!”
One starts a new wine enterprise for lifestyle reasons. Consequently, one has one’s own ideas about what one considers authentic for one’s own property. One’s neighbours have ideas about what is authentic as well.
If your neighbours all grow Cabernet Sauvignon, and it has a reputation for making quality wine in that area, you are likely to think you are growing authentic Stellenbosch wine by using Cabernet Sauvignon (even if half the world is also growing the bleeding grape).
I am really pleased I have got through five hundred words of defending growing Cabernet Sauvignon without mentioning fucking Californian Cabernet Sauvignon once. This is because I loathe and despise the vast majority of the filth.
So, we move onto our authentic Le Riche Reserve Cabernet 2021 from the Stellenbosch region of South Africa. Le Riche Reserve Cabernet is one of the top Cabernet wines made in Stellenbosch and 2021 is an excellent year across the whole of South Africa. Things are looking good!
I decanted this before lunch to have with dinner. The quick sniff I had whilst decanting revealed sleek, sophisticated aromas of considerable complexity. But let us leap forward to dinner time when it should be blossoming beautifully, if it is going to blossom at all!
Dinner approacheth!
Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2021, Le Riche
Hell’s bells, I loved this wine!
I really, really loved it! It was far beyond fabulous!
It was smashingly delicious; packed with bright and sparkly clean blackberry and blackcurrant fruity. This was made more exciting by a floral, herbal set of aromas that developed into something distinctly sage-like on the palate. They were energetic and full of life.
It had a powerful but really scrumptious tannic structure. They did not leave every unbound protein in your mouth feeling like a solid block of mucus, but swelled and sustained the fruity, herbal flavours and supported them across your palate.
The Editor said, “This is not very oaky, is it?”
“You think so?”, I snorted, “Look, man! Look again!” He confessed it was very oaky indeed, but the oak had brilliant integration into the fruit and overall structure of the wine. I thought it seemed very tasty.
Even after a six hour decant, this opened further with time in our glasses and developed into a real beauty. Fruit, flowers, herbs, oak, all sveltely delivered in a stylish, but cool, manner. Sensually enjoyable with hugely complex length.
However, we agreed this was a wine to come back to in ten years. “It is just a tightly-coiled spring, is it not?”, said The Editor, “There is so much there but it is just going to expand in its expressivity as it ages. You are not touching your other bottles for a long time!”, he cautioned.
“I am deeply satisfied with that taste; I will not!”, I promised, “That bottle was just the cat’s arse!”
To obtain future vintages contact the man with the plan, Greg Sherwood MW.
Agree completely with your comments Davy and certainly agree this is a very fine wine that needs at least ten years to be anywhere near its best . I confess to being a member of the Le Riche wine club, as it gives me the opportunity to acquire and indeed taste these excellent wines at the cellar door, prior to release .
Thanks for your thoughts on Stellenbosch cab generally, which I readily agree with. After 25 years in the region, I certainly recognise the fynbos in the wine . Of course some cheap SA cab still has that rubbery taste but the top producers make cab that is just as enjoyable as Bordeaux at a fraction of the price.
Lawks, I’d like to buy this at cellar door prices!
Yes, ten years plus. This is an impressively fine wine and will serve you with top, top drinking for at least a couple of decades.
Thanks for the review. Will I have the patience to wait for the remainder of my stash to mature? I hope so.
Do keep it, Alex old bean; it’ll be wonderful when mature.
Super note Davy. I’ve got a couple of mature ones. For next time!
Reserve? Ooohhh… Lovely! I’ll be there 🙂
BTW, although Greg is sold out, this is still available from North South (cases only?) and Winoship (also the cheapest).
Yes, we’ve a few cases left at our allocation £, best, Mr_Winoship