2012 Kanonkop
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Tasting notes
Full bottle 1,356 g. 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc and 15% Merlot from 22-year-old vines. Yield four tons/ha. Five-day maceration in open fermenters with punchdowns every two hours. Aged 22 months in new barriques. On the back label there's also a useful chart showing 'bottle shock' in 2014 and 'optimum drinking' from 2017. Mellow medium-intensity ruby colour. Subtle, mature Cabernet nose and lots of fruit initially – no sign of oak now – and such tannin as there is, is well into the background. But the acidity is a little pronounced before the lingering, though slightly pinched, finish. (JR)
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
More reviews and scores
(aged for two years in all new French oak): Bright red-ruby. Aromas of cassis and licorice are lifted by herbs and black pepper. Dense but light on its feet; in a distinctly old-school Bordeaux style, conveying a strong peppery tobacco leaf quality to its flavors of currant, dark raspberry and woodsmoke. I find this penetrating, vibrant, utterly seamless wine less opulent than the 2011 but it will need several years of aging to blossom. Lovely suave tannins and floral lift on the end.
The 2012 Paul Sauer is approximately the same blend as the 2011, matured 24 months in new oak. Actually, the nose is very similar to the previous vintage with mint-tinged, floral black fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with taut tannin, quite backward and primal as you would expect, the oak lifting the finish that at the moment does not quite have the persistence of the 2011. Let's see what happens over the next year.