The 2008 vintage is 35% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Malbec and 10% Petit Verdot, aged in old barrels: Gottfried thinks it’s the Malbec in the blend that really lifts it. Red fruit nose, lightly smoky. Lively red fruit and coffee palate, fleshy, well-textured, totally clean, and still a bargain for the quality. Now-2013

Product Code: CHX108

Here goes: Cape Chamonix is now one of the best estates in the Cape. Why? Not because they make a handful of fantastically expensive wines, but because every single wine from this estate is of terrific quality (not that we buy all, just most!); all are excellent examples of their respective grapes or styles; and all represent value for money. We would put the Reserve Chardonnay and Pinot Noir up against anything from the New World at the same price.

The estate owns vineyards above the town running from 380 to 600 metres in altitude. The youthful-looking Gottfried Mocke has been winemaker here since 2001, which makes him a veteran by Cape standards. He trained in Germany (with visits to Burgundy), but has additional experience at Trevallon in Provence and Rex Hill in Oregon.

The sparkling wine is of tiny volume - it doesn’t even appear on the estate’s own website! - so we are lucky to have got our hands on some of this, made in a consciously Champagne style from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. This year we have also added the estate’s simply titled Blanc, a blend of Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc. The Reserve Sauvignon is a barrel-fermented wine which is intended to mature in the manner of a white Bordeaux: Jancis Robinson calls it a “lively, long-term wine”. The Reserve Chardonnay is really superb, and a great keeper too. The reds start with Rouge, a Bordeaux blend. Troika is a more serious and ageworthy blend of three grapes (hence the name). The Reserve Pinot Noir is from the higher vineyards, at
500-600 metres of altitude and facing south-south west, so cooler.