2015 Lady May

Full bottle 1,557 g. 69% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Cabernet Franc, 11% Merlot and 7% Petit Verdot. Lightly crushed into stainless-steel tanks. Indigenous-yeast fermentation with a mixture of rack and returns and open pumpovers. Post-fermentation skin contact for 2–3 weeks, then pressed gently. Malolactic fermentation in French oak barrels. On lees for a long period of time before racking. Racked on average every four months. 24 months in new French oak barrels, with egg-white clarification. Natural cork. TA 5.7 g/l, pH 3.52, RS 2.1 g/l. 27,200 bottles made . Deep ruby-black. Compact nose of graphite, toasted bread, wood-toast, vanilla fudge and dried tobacco. The fruit is broad-spectrum, ripe black fruit, giving a hint of cassis, but is more than that – truly a blend. Sleek and precise on the palate, with a floral, blueberry liqueur component that gives way to oak smoke and savoury spiciness. The tannins build but there’s nothing unripe or over-extracted here. Very, very well-made and will reward cellaring before broaching. Bordeaux meets South Africa indeed. (TJ)

Full bottle 1,564 g. 69% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Cabernet Franc, 11% Merlot, 7% Petit Verdot. The grapes were lightly crushed into stainless-steel tanks. Spontaneous fermentation with a mixture of rack and returns and open pumpovers. Post-fermentation skin contact for two to three weeks and then pressed gently. Malolactic fermentation occurred in new French oak barrels where the wine was aged on lees for 24 months, being racked quite frequently: every four months. 4,500 cases made. Lustrous dark crimson. Just a slightly herbaceous note but then an intense combination of ripe fruit and maturing tannins. This is quite a velvety wine that should bring pleasure. Ambitious and only a little bit sweet. Although the Estate Reserve 2015 is arguably just as much of a pleasure to drink now! This flagship bottling will doubtless outlast it. (JR)

The 2015 Lady May is a blend of 69% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Cabernet Franc, 11% Merlot and 7% Petit Verdot and offers up aromas of roasted coffee bean, mocha, fried sage, blackberry reduction and elements of rosemary blossom. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is mineral driven with flavors of dusty cherry, black plum and blackberry skin that sway with elements of bitter dark chocolates and rosemary before giving way to youthful tannins. These youthful tannins mean that this needs additional time in bottle to come around. The wine concludes with a long-lingering and food-friendly finish.