01 January 2008

Spier Private Collection 2002 -- Wow!!

Lets start the new year with a brace of 2004 Top 10 winning Pinotages. First Spier Private Collection 2002

Wow…..

2002 might have been a difficult vintage in the Cape but this wine is a triumph. Deeply flavoured, savoury with tobacco leaf and dried herbs. It develops in the glass, providing a (restrained) roller coaster of flavours. There’s cherry and blackberries on top, with some muscular tannins lurking underneath. There’s a depth and structure to this wine and as we finish the last glass its opening up offering an intriguing dark chocolate bouquet. If I’d had another bottle I’d have been tempted to pull the cork there and then. But better still to keep it a couple more years.

I so enjoyed the Spier that the following evening I opened one of my all time favourites, La Cave 2003. But I was disappointed that choirs of angels didn’t sing this time. Maybe this was an off bottle, maybe the wine is entering a dumb phase, but the fruit was subdued and acids were to the fore. Drinkable but not, this time unfortunately, a wow.

Comparing the labels, while La Cave shows the winery name, location and website & email addresses, the Spier wine gives no such information, just the name Spier.

Details
Producer: Spier
Designation: Private Collection
Winemaker: Frans Smit
Variety: Pinotage 94% Cab Sauvignon 6%
Appellation: Stellenbosch
Alcohol:14.5%

Details
Producer: Wamakersvallei Winery
Designation: La Cave
Winemaker: Chris Roux
Variety: 100% Pinotage
Appellation: Swartland
Alcohol:15%

1 comment:

  1. Happy New Year to you and yours Peter

    Cheers!

    Nick and family

    ReplyDelete