South African’s seem to have a knack for producing gamey style reds and mineral driven whites. Most of the red blends are big and flavorful with smoke and gamey meat flavors that tend to have bundles of character. My first impression of the red line up at a recent tasting was that of dislike. Many were just too much for my palate to hold any sort of objective pondering and I felt blasted with the same wild game flavor as I tasted through the lineup. But, all that said, I think having one of these jumbo reds with a South African game feast would probably be truly transcendental.

I really liked all the whites. They seem to have a really good mineral core that appeals to my palate. Among the white lineup was the 2007 Mulderbosch Chenin Blanc. This was the most impressive wine of the entire tasting. Red or white. Very polished notes of mineral, lemon and lime with exceptional length and an outstanding bargain.

Posted on Apr 07, 2009 & filed under Wine

Tags: chenin blanc, south africa, tasting