2012 Porseleinberg
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Tasting Notes
This is more supple and soft than the 2012, with a savoury and saline profile. There’s more elegance than the first two vintages, with dark, intense fruit yet with an appealing purity, complemented by notes of tobacco spice and liquorice allsorts. Only 2,760 bottles were made. Aged for 12 months in concrete egg.
Critic Scores
Average Score
Neal Martin, Wine Advocate
Tim Atkin MW
More reviews and scores
It may sport the most useless, illegible label in the universe, but Callie Louw does know exactly what he is doing. The 2012 Porseleinberg Syrah has a sublime, perfumed bouquet with raspberry preserve, cloves, touches of wild fennel and rosemary that are all very succinct. The palate is medium-bodied with supremely well judged acidity, firm grip in the mouth and plenty of raspberry and wild strawberry fruit toward the finished, inter-layered with fennel and white peppers. Great backbone here and very long length, this is another outstanding wine from one of Swartland's finest exponents.
You’d expect a wine produced on this extreme, windblown site in the Swartland to be wild and unruly. But this is surprisingly elegant and subtle. Fermented entirely in concrete, it’s floral and scented, with silky tannins, some pepper and a core of strawberry succulence on top of mineral, stony acidity. This will be released before the more backward 2011, but it’s still a wine that will age well. A Cape classic in the making.
About the producer
Porseleinberg is a single-site Syrah from the Swartland that has, since its first vintage in 2010, become one of South Africa’s most celebrated and sought-after wines. Made by cult winemaker Callie Louw from incredibly poor soils on the slopes of the Porseleinberg, the wine is rightfully revered.