2017 Thorne & Daughters, Wanderer’s Heart, Western Cape, South Africa
£24.99, Handford Wines, 020-7589 6113, handford.net
A rather wonderful thing happened the other day. I visited Handford in order to taste some wines for one of our MoneyWeek Wine Club features and, while perusing the awesome selection of bottles on the shelves of this amazing emporium, James and Gav suggested that we might concentrate on one of their fortes, South Africa. You will read about the Wine Club wines next month, but because the flight of bottles they opened was so stellar I was left with an excess of beauties and so here are two of the stars that I could not fit into my Wine Club sextet.
Wanderer’s Heart is rich, bold, delicious and complete. It has extraordinary appeal and succulence in spite of its controlled 13.1% alcohol. A relatively new winery on the scene, John and Tasha Seccombe have an exquisite touch with their fruit, managing to fashion delicate, savoury, compelling wines from hearty raw materials. This grenache, cinsault and mourvèdre blend adheres perfectly to their mantra – to taste the Western Cape air and sunshine in their wines!
Another red that amazed me was 2017 Savage, Follow the Line Cinsault (£28.99). I noted a Volnay-like texture in this wine, which is certainly a clash of cultures, but this is another captivating Cape red that brings a degree of magic and poise to proceedings while retaining impressive freshness and bounce on the palate.
• Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition’s Communicator of the Year (matthewjukes.com).