Another wonderful surprise from South Africa.
If SA keeps this up I may eventually have to road trip down there just to see what the heck is going on!
Then again, I don’t know if I’d want to if I had to deal with…
“Our isolated farm is high up on the edge of a Wilderness Nature Reserve…The site is very challenging with bush fires, extreme weather, wild animals and natural dangers ever present during the growing season. It feels like we are on the fringes of the frontier.”
Fire, lions, heat stroke, frostbite, poison oak, isolation. Sounds faaaan-tastic!
Maybe I’ll just hang out here and crack another bottle of these exceptional Fable Mountain Vineyards wines instead. Safer…and certainly less time-consuming than the 2 day plane trip…Tulbagh?
I guess it shows just what a madman the very busy Charles Banks is. Seems he wasn’t happy enough with just hanging out at his properties in California (Mayacamas, Qupé, Wind Gap, etc) or reminiscing on his past acquisitions and sales (Jonata, Screaming Eagle). Nope, old Charles had to go and buy himself a couple of South African wineries. One, Mulderbosch, we’ve already talked about in these pages. The other, Fable Mountain Vineyards, we had not…until now.
This was the quieter of the two South African acquisitions by Charles and his team, though it’s most certainly the louder when it comes to the quality of the wine.
There’s a reason why somebody put this vineyard out in the middle of nowhere with snakes, lions, leopards, caracals (look that one up), baboons and fires. Because it’s some seriously rocking dirt for growing grapes. Little topsoil and a base of ancient vertical shale provide a mineral-rich, nutrient-poor foundation for these vines to struggle in, coaxing all the stony goodness out of the soil they possibly can.
The winery produces two wines from their estate Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre vineyards, with a third, the Jackal Bird white, sourced from top sites around the Western Cape.
The 2012 Jackal Bird White is a blend of 45% Chenin Blanc, 20% Grenache Blanc, 17% Roussanne, 9% Chardonnay and 9% Viognier. In my mind, winemakers Rebecca Tanner and Paul Nicholls have constructed this wine as the prototypical South African white Rhone blend (whatever that may be!) with a classic Swartland/Cape Chenin edge to it. I’d describe it as a cross between something Eben Sadie or Mulderbosch would craft with a strong hint of Beaucastel’s Chateauneuf Blanc. I know, that sounds wine dork-y.
Neal Martin’s tasting note was nearly spot-on when he wrote, “It has a light fresh pear and wet-rock-scented bouquet that just needs a little more vigor (perhaps a conflict of several grape varieties.) The palate is crisp on the entry with touches of quince and lemon curd, a fine line of acidity and plenty of freshness toward the finish that just needs a touch more persistence.”
My only difference in opinion is that, to me, the wine had all the ‘vigor’ it required, and then some. A terrific South African white.
The winery’s 2011 Night Sky Rhone Blend is 60% Syrah, 25% Mourvedre form their estate and 15% Grenache, a part of which comes from the Swartland. I was really impressed by the deep yet light-handed touch of this one, with nary a hint of that South African ‘iodine and grill’ character that marks so many of these wines. Great purity of fruit here.
Neal wrote, “The nose needs some encouragement, but it is worth the effort with some gorgeous blackberry and mulberry aromas emerging, interlaced with white pepper and fennel. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, fleshy in the mouth with sweet, ripe cassis and blackcurrant toward the finish. What a delightful wine to enjoy over the next 4 or 5 years. 92 points.”
Finally there’s the winery’s spellbinding 2011 Syrah. What a wine. I would actually risk a leopard attack to grab a case of this stuff.
Neal writes, “The first word that springs to mind on the nose is “Clape” – a Cornas doppelganger that has wonderful definition. The palate is very intense and minerally, with layers of ripe blackberry, cassis and white pepper and enormous structure on the salted licorice finish that manages to maintain finesse. This is one of the best South African Syrah that I tasted during my tasting – bravo. 94 points.”
“Clape”?
“…one of the best South African Syrah that I tasted during my tasting”?
Serious words, for serious wines.
We bought all there was. Quantities are tiny. What you don’t buy, me and the baboons are going to split…