In the special Vergelegen edition of Business Day Wanted, SA’s foremost wine taster and wine judge Michael Fridjohn pays tribute to Vergelegen’s V.
The estate, he says, “has distinguished itself, both in terms of the intention to make it a world-class wine and in the long-term investment required to push past the wreckage left by the many speculative enterprises that have failed en route.”
Fridjohn writes: “In 2008, Jancis Robinson, probably the foremost European wine expert and writer, hosted a blind tasting of the world’s top reds at the World Economic Forum in Davos. There the 2001 Vergelegen Estate Red (now GVB) beat all the First Growths. If there had been any doubt about Vergelegen’s potential to produce a truly iconic wine, this certainly disposed of it.”
V is released several years after the harvest — so it is the 2012 vintage that is now in the trade. Collectors all over the world are ageing every release back to the maiden 2001. It’s one of those wines that can be indulged in now, or be safely kept until a new-born godchild turns 21.
Vergelegen V: South Africa’s top contender for an icon wine
Made entirely from cabernet, V is Vergelegen’s bid at making an ultra-premium global wine
Created by Australian winemaker Max Schubert, Penfolds Grange is today one of the world’s most celebrated wines. According to winemag.co.za, the 2008 rated 100 points in Wine Spectator and Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate. The current 2013 release sells for an average price of over R8,000 a bottle.
Several of SA’s producers have sought to create a ‘Cape Grange’, but mostly they have taken a short term view ‒ until now.
In the special Vergelegen edition of Business Day Wanted, SA’s foremost wine taster and wine judge Michael Fridjohn pays tribute to Vergelegen’s V.
The estate, he says, “has distinguished itself, both in terms of the intention to make it a world-class wine and in the long-term investment required to push past the wreckage left by the many speculative enterprises that have failed en route.”
Fridjohn writes: “In 2008, Jancis Robinson, probably the foremost European wine expert and writer, hosted a blind tasting of the world’s top reds at the World Economic Forum in Davos. There the 2001 Vergelegen Estate Red (now GVB) beat all the First Growths. If there had been any doubt about Vergelegen’s potential to produce a truly iconic wine, this certainly disposed of it.”
V is released several years after the harvest — so it is the 2012 vintage that is now in the trade. Collectors all over the world are ageing every release back to the maiden 2001. It’s one of those wines that can be indulged in now, or be safely kept until a new-born godchild turns 21.
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This article was sponsored by Vergelegen.