The much anticipated annual Platter’s South African Wine Guide, regarded as an essential companion to the South African wine lands, with more than 6000 wines rated for the 2012 edition has just been released.  As in previous years, Boplaas Family Vineyards in Calitzdorp was again fortunate to be awarded one of the 47 “5 Stars” that were awarded in the 2012 guide.  As per previous year’s it was the Boplaas Cape Vintage Reserve Port that took top honours – this year with the outstanding Boplaas Cape Vintage Reserve Port 2009.  With more than fourteen wines rating 4 or more stars in the guide, and the Boplaas Sauvignon Blanc 2011 and Boplaas Viognier 2010 being noted as being “exceptionally drinkable and well priced” or as the guide calls it a “quaffer”.  As from last year, Platter’s sends a panel of tasters to the Klein Karoo to assess each producer’s wines within the region to create a regional benchmark and the duo of tasters result in a more representative score.The list of Boplaas’s top performing wines in the 2012 edition, available from the cellar door in Calitzdorp, are as follows:

5 Stars – Boplaas Cape Vintage Reserve Port 2009 & Boplaas Cape Tawny Port 1997 (375mℓ)4 ½ Stars – Boplaas Hanepoot Reserve 2011 (375mℓ), Boplaas Red Muscadel Vintners Reserve 1975, Boplaas Muscadel Reserve 2010 (375mℓ), Boplaas Cape Tawny Port N/V, Boplaas Cape Vintage Port 2009, and the Boplaas The Chocolate Cape Vintage Port 2008.

4 Stars – Boplaas Family Reserve Shiraz 2007, Boplaas Family Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon-Shiraz 2007, Boplaas Cape Ruby Port N/V, Boplaas Cape Tawny Port Vintners Reserve N/V (375mℓ), Boplaas Cape Tawny Port Show Reserve N/V and Cool Bay Sauvignon Blanc Reserve 2010.

3 ½ Stars – Boplaas Pinot Noir Méthode Cap Classique Brut 2009, Boplaas Family Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2008, Boplaas Family Reserve Pinotage 2008, Boplaas Pinotage 2009, Boplaas Shiraz 2008, Boplaas Touriga Naçional 2009, Boplaas Hanepoot 2011 and Boplaas Muscadel 2011.

Boplaas Family Vineyards from the quaint Klein Karoo hamlet of Calitzdorp, have once again proved that they are amongst the Cape’s finest producers by garnering three double gold, one gold medal and a silver medal from their seven entries entered at Veritas 2011. Veritas, South Africa’s largest and most prestigious wine awards, celebrated its 21st year of competition with a record number of 1739 entries, of which only 42 were awarded the ultimate accolade of double gold.  Boplaas was pipped at the post by the KWV, but none the less, was the most successful privately owned cellar of the competition.

The three double gold medals were awarded to the Boplaas Cape Vintage Port 2009, Cape Tawny Port Non-Vintage (N/V)and the Boplaas Cape Tawny Reserve Port 1997; while Boplaas Cape Vintage Reserve Port 2008 garnered one of the four golds awarded in the Cape Port category.  This stellar performance of Boplaas’s Cape Ports at Veritas and the Cape Port Producer’s Association (CAPPA) Port Challenge this year, has fortified its reputation as one of the Cape’s finest producers.

The Boplaas Cape Tawny Port N/V, a blend of fine Tawnies that are barrel matured for ten years, was crowned “Port of the year” at the SAA Wine Awards 2010 and has been served to business class passengers this year, while this Cape Tawny won the Tawny category at the CPPA’s Port Challenge earlier this year.  The Boplaas Cape Tawny Reserve Port 1997, a rare Colheita crafted from Tinta Barocca, is a previous 5 Star Platter’s luminary and the only double gold medal Port in the Museum Class at Veritas 2011.  The Boplaas Cape Vintage Port 2009, a blend of the Douro’s traditional Port varietals Touriga Naçional, Tinta Barocca and Souzão, was awarded double gold and is available ex-cellar for R62 p/b.  A gold medal was awarded to the Boplaas Cape Vintage Reserve Port 2008 which last year received Platter’s ultimate 5 Star rating and earlier this year garnered a 4 ½ Star rating from WINE’s annual Port tasting.

Although Boplaas’s Cape Ports make headlines, this producer’s versatility has been highlighted by back-to-back SA Champion for Sauvignon Blanc at the National Young Wine Show in 2009 and 2010 for the Cool Bay Sauvignon Blanc Reserve; the numerous 4 Star Platter’s rating for the Boplaas Family Reserve red wines and artisanal Cape Postill brandies that grace the annual Cape Winemaker’s Guild Auction.  The Boplaas Ring of Rocks, an innovative blend of Touriga Naçional, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, was nominated as one of the “Top 10 Red Wines” for National Braai Day by Cathy Marston on Food24.com.

All this year’s Veritas award winning Boplaas Cape Ports are available from the cellar door in Calitzdorp and will be available for tasting at Veritas’s various national tastings*.  For more information and enquiries contact the cellar on (044) 2133326, or send a mail to marketing@boplaas.co.za or winemaker@boplaas.co.za.  Alternatively visit our website at www.boplaas.co.za or you can “LIKE” us on Facebook.  For information regarding the Veritas public tastings visit www.veritas.co.za

Is there anything better than a ‘tjop ‘n dop’ on National Braai Day? Of course not and in my book, it’s even better if the ‘dop’ is wine and not beer. It’s thirsty work braaiing so try and remember that wine is stronger than beer and don’t embarrass yourself by keeling over halfway through – try a block or two of ice in your whites or alternate each glass of wine with a glass of water. Here are my top ten wines to have with the top five favourite things to throw on the grill.

STEAK
Boplaas ‘Ring of Rocks’ CMT 2007 R75 cellar door
I had this after a really not terribly good day recently and it cheered me up no end. It’s a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Touriga Nacional – the main grape variety used in Port. Not surprising really, since this comes from those peerless port producers, Boplaas. It’s rich, rounded, savoury with a creamy silky finish. Perfect with a whole fillet rolled in cracked black peppercorns.

Written by Cathy Marston
http://ow.ly/6xZud

The Boplaas Cape Vintage Reserve 2006 is crafted from a combination of the Portuguese varietals Touriga Naçional, Tinta Barocca and Souzão, all originating from a selection of old, low yielding vineyards.  As with all Boplaas’s Cape Ports the traditional Port making techniques are followed as far as possible, such as fermentation in lagares , manual pigeage, while the wines are fortified with only the finest brandy spirit, matured in Port pipes and  finally bottled unfiltered and unfined.  The Boplaas Cape Vintage Reserve 2006 is still very much in the primary stages of development – with a bouquet of ripe apricot, peach, macerated black hedgerow fruits, plums, leather, allspice and “meaty-earthy” notes – and will continue to develop over the next four decades or more.

On a recent visit to Portugal, a few bottles of Boplaas Cape Vintage Reserve Port 2006 were taken with to gauge its quality against the best of the Duoro, many great Port makers such as Peter Symington, Dirk Niepoort enthused about this Cape Ports exceptional quality and its similarity to the very best Vintages of the Douro.The Boplaas Cape Vintage Reserve Port 2006, a limited production of 4800 bottles, is still available from selected fine retailers and direct from the cellar.

The opportunity for such an experience was afforded to a small group of wine folk by Carel Nel (pictured) and family of Boplaas Calitzdorp, surely a name to conjure up some of the best Cape Port styles produced today.
In the convivial atmosphere of 96 Winery Road, we were treated to 11 vintages, starting with the regular 1986 Vintage before moving on to the Vintage Reserves from that vintage as well as 1989, 1991, 1994 1999, 2001 (CWG), 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006. The difference between standard and Reserve vintages as described by the South African Port Producers Association (now re-named the Cape Port Producers Association) is that the Reserve should come from a year of recognised quality and be aged for a minimum of a year in wood.

The quality of that screwcapped 1986, from 100 per cent tinta barocca and still drinking well, illustrates both the suitability of the Calitzdorp area is for this style of wine and the speed with which the Nels grasped how to make them. They’ve come a long way since then, to the extent that Paul Symington of the family behind the Graham’s, Cockburn’s, Dow’s and Warre’s Ports, has remarked, ‘There is nothing in the New World that compares with South African Port styles.’

Perhaps the major improvement, apart from experience, is the introduction of the king of Port varieties, touriga nacional, planted in 1991 and incorporated in the blend from the mid-90’s. No, that’s jumping the gun; the remarkable 1989 CVR, again a tinta-only vintage from ungrafted, 21 year old vines, reflects the trend for drier wines, around 90 grams of residual sugar, and higher alcohols, between 19% to 20% alc. Better structure, some traditional grip and good freshness enlivens the rich, complex fruit. Don’t rush to open this great one.

Regrettably and at the grand age of 42 years, that vineyard was uprooted after succumbing to nematodes, rather than the phylloxera one might have imagined.

The Nels started to make contact with the Symingtons in 1989, a meeting that gave them an entrée to valuable advice and experience. In the vineyards the goals are low yields with harvesting around 26.5º Balling – lower and the grapes aren’t fully ripe; higher and unwanted raisiny flavours intrude. Quality in the cellar has gained from acid adjustments of around 1.5 g/l, a better understanding of blending and the oaking regime. ‘In 1986 we used new, small oak,’ Nel remembers, ‘never now, new oak flavours are the last thing we want in the wine. Today we use 500 litre barrels, some 80 years old. Of course, you have to be careful to keep the barrels clean, especially as we bottle the wine unfiltered.’

The lodestar for determining vintage quality is most likely still cabernet from the hub of the Western Cape (Stellenbosch, Paarl etc); Ports from the Calitzdorp area don’t follow obediently. For instance, both 1991 and 1999 were cooler years; in the former, Boplaas Vintage Reserve lacked the fruit richness of 1989 but, in contrast 1999 has more grunt and grip with a beguiling violet fragrance, hinting at the touriga in the blend with tinta barocca; it is still remarkably young.  A much hotter year in 1994 produced a big structured wine replete with earthy, sweet fruit from its tinta, souzão blend and a warming spirity finish. It too can benefit from further ageing.

But if any vintage demonstrated how careful one has to be to pin an overall quality assessment to Cape wines, it is 2002. After a terrible, wet 2001 spring, when downy mildew ran rampant and then an early onset of winter, it proved one of the worst years for cabernet and most reds, apart from some shiraz, in the main areas. Not so for Boplaas Port, a Platter five star wine with incredible concentration and orange peel scents among its complexities. The structure just seems to grow and grow. It’s difficult to believe it was pipped by the 2001 sold on the Cape Winemakers Guild auction, but it was. This classic – in build as well as in its 50% touriga, 35% tinta and 15% souzão make up – is reminiscent of Portuguese Ports in that it is nowhere near ready to drink. In all respects it has great balance and would make a welcome present for any Port lover turning 21 in 2022 and probably age well for much longer.

If 2003 shows more forward fruit without the concentration of the brilliant, intense 2005 or 2006 (announced the morning of our tasting as winner of the 2011 SAPPA Cape Port Challenge), all three illustrate an upward quality curve thanks to older vines and the Nels’ greater experience. In other words, the vintages shown differed in many respects but there were no poor wines.

There was much discussion about the spirit used for fortification. The Portuguese use an un-aged wine spirit from Cognac. Here a blend of brandy (pot stilled spirit) and wine spirit (column stilled) fortifies the wine, the actual quantities being determined by the desired goal of a final alcohol level of around 18.5% to 20% alc. Nel warns that the fortification should have no brandy flavours, which overrides the fruit, a character I don’t like at all. Surprisingly, Nel claims that if the same spirit as used by the Portuguese was employed in our Ports, the difference between the two wines would be minimal.

There is a bigger difference coming. Nel says from 1st January 2012, ‘Port’ will be dropped from the label locally. Despite the fact that the Wine and Spirits Agreement with the EU has yet to be ratified and the €15 000 000 promised for the restructuring of the SA wines and spirits sector as well as for marketing and distribution of these products has yet to be paid, the Port producers have agreed to drop Port from the label for local sales. Any reference not on the label is permissible, eg Calitzdorp is the Port capital of South Africa. Expect to hear that often!

In my previous blog I mentioned disappointment that no Ports had been awarded gold medals at the last two Trophy Wine Shows. The possible reason is that as the wines have improved, they take longer to show well and have been entered when too young. Certainly Christian Eedes and I agreed we would without question give the 2005 a gold; it received silver last year.
Only 750 cases of the Vintage Reserve are made; much is sold from the farm. It’s worth the detour.

Written by Angela Lloyd

For more information on activities, exhibitors and much more visit www.portwinefestival.co.za or contact Boplaas on 044-2133326.

The Boplaas Cape Tawny Port 1997 – a Colheita which spent 12 years in barrel – was awarded 4 ½ Stars.  This exceptionally rare Cape Tawny also achieved a 5 Star Platter rating; a Veritas Gold in 2009 and was the winner of the “Museum class” at the SAPPA Port Challenge 2010.

The Boplaas’ Cape Tawny Port N/V was also awarded 4 ½ Stars, a wine that last year won “Port of the Year” at the SAA Wine Awards and was awarded Double Gold at Veritas.

In the Vintage class, the Boplaas Cape Vintage Reserve Port 2008 received a rating of 4 ½ Stars, with this wine also receiving a 5 Star rating from Platter’s 2011.

The Boplaas Cape Vintage The Chocolate Port 2008 was awarded 4 Stars and is an unwooded Port crafted from selected Tinta Barocca and Touriga Naçional vineyards that year-on-year produce Ports with a prominant cacao and black berry flavour profile.  The Boplaas Chocolate Port was also awarded a 4 ½ Star rating in Platter’s 2011 and is available in 375mℓ packaging.

The Boplaas Cape Tawny Port 1997 is available only from the cellar door, while all the other Boplaas Cape Ports reviewed in WINE are widely distributed throughout South Africa.  For enquires contact Boplaas at 044- 2133326 or visit the website www.boplaas.co.za

Harvesting