Provenance

Producer

Critics Ratings

'Quite an individual wine, this 2018 Rabelais is beautifully characterful and expressive with vivid notes of sour black plum compote, saline black currant, kelp and oyster shell, unsmoked cigars and freshly cracked black pepper all tightly smothered beneath an aromatic iron curtain of graphite and cedar spice. The palate shows an impressively polished texture with sleek marble like tannins… firm but super tight knit and precise, a medium bodied harmonious weight of red and black berry fruits and an incredibly long, saline, rock salt finish. Plenty of attractive wet river pebble minerality combines with graphite, lead pencil and complexing brûléed wood spice nuances to offer all the 'salt & pepper' complexity that should evolve in bottle to one day make this a truly classy, complex Cape Bordeaux blend. Crack the odd bottle after 5+ years but keep the rest for at least 10+. A fabulous 2018 blend that speaks of the vintage.' - Greg Sherwood MW, 96/100

'All-new French oak & selection of special vineyard parcels show in the fruit intensity, layers of spicing & uber-sleek structure. Sumptuous '18, like '16 has a great future.' - Platter's SA Wine Guide 2021, 5* (95/100)

'The Merlot Reserve is a barrel selection from two vineyards on east-facing slopes, both of them planted with an Italian clone. Aged in 100% new wood, it's an ambitious, sumptuous red with big, bold flavours, notes of vanilla spice and chocolate and blackberry and bramble fruit. 2023-30' - Tim Atkin MW, SA Special Report 2019, 94/100