Groot Constantia Lady of Abundance 2018

Groot Constantia Lady of Abundance 2018

Groot Constantia Wine Estate is in the Constantia Wine Appellation and one of the older estates in the Winelands. I always think of it as the cradle of wine in the Cape. A large estate like this has many soils, from red clay and loamy granite soils, duplex soil, to sandstone and granite origin, mostly weathered and decomposed. Heights above sea level vary from 40 to 160. Cooling breezes from the Benguela Current in the Atlantic Ocean flow down from the mountain and up from False Bay.

Floricious Beukes [l] with Boela Gerber and team

Floricious Beukes, the Estate’s Vineyardist trains on vertical shoot position trellis systems. The activities in the vineyards need his team as they are all done by hand, pruning, canopy management and harvesting. Pest control is done biologically, and soil health and weed control are managed by a selected mix of winter cover crops.

Once delivered to Boela Gerber, Groot Constantia’s much awarded Winemaker, and his team, the handpicked grapes were separately fermented in stainless steel tanks with regular pump overs in the early part of fermentation. For oak maturation, the different components were aged separately for 12 months in 10% new, 35% 2nd fill,35% 3rd fill and 20% 4th fill French oak barrels before blending and bottling.

Napoleon Bonaparte, best known customer when he was in exile on St Helena

Pour

From a Bordeaux shaped bottle, closed with natural cork. The label is the traditional simple classical label with an etching of the Manor House. In the glass, the wine is a deep bloodplum at the heart which pales out to ruby at the edges. The aromas are essentially those of black fruit, and the oak showing itself with it spice and vanilla. These segue on to the palate which has a lovely line of acidity which meets the fine tannins after the rich and generous fruit and spice flavours. To me an impressive glass. Will reward handsomely after a year or two of cool cellaring.

The perfect tranche of Steak

Pair

While the Groot Constantia Lady of Abundance 2018 is an excellent sipping wine with some nibbles, it is a grand scale food wine. Excellent with a tranche of steak, served with herb butter or a mustard sauce.

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