2022 Natte Valley Cinsault

Fruit from Wellington, Simonsberg-Paarl, Swartland, Darling and Stellenbosch – all bush vines. Alex Milner says that, for them, it was a huge vintage in terms of volume (17,500 litres) and it was also very ripe and mature. Some of the blocks they picked two and three times. Fermented in various ways with a mix of whole berry, whole bunch and stalk. Aged in old barrels, foudre and concrete egg. TA 6.2 g/l, RS 1.8 g/l, pH 3.59, VA 0.7. More roundness, sweetness and power. More pronounced pepperiness (pink, white, black) and then damson. Punchy. Bodacious, bold-attitude flavours of blood orange and red apple and plum. Not as subtle as the single-vineyard wines but loads of fun and yumminess. (TC)

Full bottle 1,342 g. Alex Milner's regional blend from dry-farmed, bush-vine vineyards. Spontaneous fermentation and 12 months in a mix of concrete eggs, foudres and barrels. Pomegranate and rain-soaked red bricks. The Cinsault smell of rust and then like putting a slightly muddy rose petal in your mouth. That's Cinsault. It's all the things that should not taste beautiful, and yet it does and they do. This is like kissing someone whose lip is bleeding. It's visceral, in an incredibly tender timbre. Sour cherries and juniper. If you love steak tartare, sashimi, carpaccio, this is your wine (and probably  the  wine to have with any of those things). Put it in the fridge for 15 minutes before serving. (TC)