A fruit forward, approachable wine of deceptively serious quality, this is a satisfyingly ripe, textural tight expression of Cab Franc Malbec with real purity of fruit.
Production
Wildeberg’s rationale is to source the finest vineyards available to us across Franschhoek and the Coastal Region, from which cuvées the eyes are plucked to make Wildeberg and the Terroir Series releases250. In doing so there remains a small yet definitive expression of all the vineyards we worked with, and its these cuvees that are again selected to go into Coterie by Wildeberg. All fruit is hand-harvested in February from selected sites in Franschhoek and Paarl. Both cultivars are fermented whole bunch, with some whole berry fruit, there is no crush, just a daily pump over during the natural fermentation. We want to express place over cultivar so this slow, gentle extraction gives wines truer of origin than winery. The components are racked to French and Austrian oak, new and old, for 20 months before the blend is decided. This blend is then allowed to marry for 6 weeks prior to coarse filtration and bottling on the farm.
Coterie by Wildeberg Cabernet Franc Malbec, Coastal Region 2022 (6 bottles case)
Vivino ratings
Tasting notes
A fresh and vibrant nose of crushed red fruits, hints of redcurrant and wild plum with lightly herbal notes, cloves and star anise. Plush and richly flavoured with ripe black fruit, a savoury mid palate and subtle, gently spicy oak backed by juicy acidity. The rich fruit is offset by fine tannins on an attractively muscular finish.
Food match
Grilled meats, especially lamb and spiced meat dishes.
Info
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ABV
14%
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CASE/BOTTLE SIZE
6 x 75cl
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REGION/COUNTRY
COASTAL REGION, SOUTH AFRICA
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GRAPE
CABERNET FRANC 67%, MALBEC 33%
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FEATURES
VEGETARIAN, VEGAN
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CLOSURE
CORK
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WINEMAKER
JD ROSSOUW
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APPELLATION
COASTAL REGION
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ALLERGEN INFO
CONTAINS SULPHITES AND NO OTHER ALLERGENS
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Meet the producer
The Earth’s mantle thrusts up above the gentle town of Franschhoek, a wild slice of untamed mountain on which sits a farm named Wildeberg. An established wine region for some 350 years, sensible generations never thought to plant a vine here until a happy band of idealists recently craned their necks up at this hillside and, dizzy with hope, decided to give it a go. Franschhoek is on the very edge of the south-eastern corner of the Cape’s venerable Coastal Region, indeed Wildeberg’s property border runs over the top of the mountain where the Coastal Region gives way to the baboon-strewn road to Grabouw and the wider Western Cape.
The Wildeberg wines express the most captivating Franschhoek Valley fruit. In our Wildeberg Terroirs bottlings we look beyond our home to a clutch of exceptional sites of other origin.
A mountain rich in metaphor with the visual heft to flatter any wine, releases of Wildeberg and Terroirs express our continued purpose – exceptional wines of place, however humble the origin. If the abiding memory of our wines remains a textural sense of place then we are portraying the Cape as hoped.