Wine of the week: three South African stunners
Matthew Jukes picks three three beautiful, perfectly priced wines from one of the most famous estates in the whole of the Cape.
2018 Paul Cluver, Chardonnay, Elgin, South Africa
About £20, frontierfinewines.co.uk, caviste.co.uk, dunells.com, nywines.co.uk, handford.net, harrogatefinewinecompany.com, thesavanna.co.uk, houseoftownend.com, winedirect.co.uk, buywineonline.co.uk
I have three beautiful wines this week, all perfectly priced and from one of the most famous estates in the whole of the Cape. I also have masses of stockists, so get stuck in! Paul Cluver Jr, his winemaker Andries Burger and I have spent many hours talking and drinking chardonnay together. These guys are obsessed with the variety and their cool Elgin vineyards are ideally placed to summon up gravitas, freshness and also the effortless class found in their wines. My headline wine is a beauty, drinking now and perfectly treading the fine line between dreaminess and alertness on the palate.
In addition to this, please seek out 2018 Paul Cluver Riesling (£15, Frontier, Caviste, tanners-wines.co.uk, vinosa.wine, greatgrog.co.uk, Waitrose, Wine Direct and Buy Wine Online). This is one of only a handful of SA rieslings which set my pulse racing with its amazing beauty and tenderness. Lime blossom and green tea abound in this delicate temptress.
Finally, 2017 Paul Cluver Pinot Noir (about £19, Frontier, gerrardseel.co.uk, Vino SA, hedleywright.co.uk, Wine Direct and Buy Wine Online) is the finest value pinot that this winery makes and it is nice to see that the 2017 is still available because it has just hit its mellow sweet spot of maturity, with its fleshy succulence and wistful red fruit perfume.
Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition’s Communicator of the Year (matthewjukes.com)