Excelsior Cabernet Sauvignon 2014

I remember once in the early noughties being told that Excelsior Cabernet was one of the best-selling South African Cabernet under a cork in the USA.  Cabernet Sauvignon makes up 43% of the estate’s plantings. The Robertson soils are well known to be lime based with portions of shale. This is good not only for great wines, but also for fine thoroughbred horses.

Cabernet Sauvignon on the vine

The aim of Peter de Wet and his Excelsior Team is to produce a wine which shows not only sensual fruit, but also with well interwoven tannins and acidity in a beautifully structured wine. After well-tended elevation in the cellar, 40% of the wine as matured in a mix of French and American oak barrels while the remainder was aged in stainless steel tanks and then blended with the oak matured wine before bottling to keep the wine fresh and sappy.

Excelsior Manor House

Pour
Deep opaque blood plum in the glass, with all the classical Cabernet aromas of blackcurrant, raspberries and oak, with its concomitant spices and vanilla. Smooth, round, with cashmere tannins and an impressive finish.

Dalewood Fromage Huguenot

Pair
This is a wine for a good tranche of red meat.  Either from the braai, the oven, a casserole and even a charcuterie platter and a slice of a hard cheese like the Dalewood Fromage Huguenot.

Do visit the Robertson Wine Valley and read about the Wacky Wine Weekend on June 1^st. Click here