Kanonkop Paul Sauer 2019.
Kanonkop Paul Sauer 2019.
Image: Supplied

There are few SA wines with the enduring stature and status of Kanonkop’s Paul Sauer.

A legacy of consistent excellence and the trophy cabinet to prove it, this renowned Bordeaux blend from the family-owned Stellenbosch estate is consistently one of the most sought-after releases of the season, the 2019 vintage proving no different.

Harnessing the challenges of the 2019 Stellenbosch vintage — the crop still showing the effects of the Cape’s drought, despite the preceding winter being blessed with the first substantial rainfall in five years — cellarmaster Abrie Beeslaar and team deliver a wine that will go down as one characterised by focused refinement.

The winemaking merging tradition with cutting-edge technology, sees the hand-harvested grapes go through a rigorous computerised optical sorting-system, ensuring only the best berries are selected. The fruit then undergoes fermentation in open concrete fermenters — the process takes place over five days, with the cap punched down every two hours to ensure a continual and gentle extraction and harmonious interaction between skins, flesh and juice.

The cabernet sauvignon, merlot and Cabernet Franc components were blended after malolactic fermentation after which the wine was placed in new 225l French oak barrels. As per each vintage of Kanonkop Paul Sauer, barrel-ageing was done for 24 months. The final blend comprising of 75% cabernet sauvignon, 14% Cabernet Franc and 11% merlot.

Kanonkop Paul Sauer 2019.
Kanonkop Paul Sauer 2019.
Image: Supplied

The end result is a wine of density, elegance and refinement. The nose draws you in with aromas of blackcurrant, dark cherry, black plum, earthiness and cedar. The palate refined and restrained, follows with superb structure and near seamless oak integration offering complexity along with beautiful fruit purity and supple tannins, before coming to a close with a long lingering yet youthful finish.

It is a beautiful wine, perhaps made even more so by the comparative tasting on the launch day of the 2006 and 2014 vintages, which not only showed spectacularly in their own right but demonstrated the track record and remarkable age-ability of Paul Sauer, offering but the slightest of glimpses as to the full potential of this already impressive new release.

To find out more or purchase the Kanonkop Paul Sauer 2019 visit their website

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