Cape Grace Basket Pressed Reserve cabernet sauvignon 2019

It's nice to be able to hold a wine like this back and release it when it's just starting to show its best form, and this one is. The season in 2019 crept up on people, and before they realised it, it emerged as one of the better years. This very small production wine follows the normal pattern of open ferment, hand plunging and basket pressing, but it then went into 18 months of new French oak. That could normally be a lot of oak, but this weight of fruit, concentration and power has easily handled it, and the result is a wine of impeccable balance and poise. It has loads of deep, dark fruit characters with a slightly leathery, blackcurrant leafy tobacco character. It really is an excellent wine with good weight as well as structure.