The Cape vintages 1995 to 1999 offer some that are considered amongst the best of the decade – the famous 1995 and the decent 1997, as well as the warm 1998 which has produced incredible wines like Kanonkop’s Paul Sauer 1998 which was still in great nick late last year and no doubt still is. When it comes to the illustrious Rust en Vrede Estate red blend, the picture is somewhat different.
By the the late 1990s and certainly by the early 2000s Rust en Vrede was well on the way to ramping their wines up to new levels of boldness, largely thanks to new “virus-free” clones. There was also a spirit of world-domination in the leadership team which contributed, as well as a predilection for powerful reds. The 1998 shows this best, and it was a warm year that predisposed itself to making big wines. The 98 is still a super wine, having lost some youthful swagger, it’s now smooth and integrated with promise for further maturation potential. The charms of the spectacular 95 vintage are completely absent from the R&V Estate wine, this a drink-now wine. So too with the promising 97 vintage, drink soon. Yet the 96, often written up as a dud red year for the Cape, is still lively and likeable, no doubt because they left merlot out of the usual blend of cabernet sauvignon, shiraz and merlot. The shiraz would have responded better to the 96 vintage and therefore kept this wine alive as it has, while the flaky merlot was simply taken out. The 99 is a swansong for the “older” style R&V wines, quite classical in its styling (the old clones still evident).
What this tasting proved once more was the danger of calling vintages in general terms. The Cape’s viticultural pockets and diverse micro-climates certainly respond individually – and in this example to reverse the conventional wisdom of the vintage summary. The house style and approach of a winery certainly plays its part, some vintages suiting the particular human modulation better than others.
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