With all the jostling on the shelves of new brands, new wines, new winemakers, it’s hardly surprising that old favourites and venerable names may be overlooked.
One assumes that’s why Glen Carlou is inviting wine lovers to “rediscover the magic” in two new releases, Glen Carlou Gravel Quarry Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 and 2020 Quartz Stone Chardonnay, both showing that there’s magic indeed from the slopes of the Simonsberg-Paarl estate.
Both are named for their single vineyard locations — the Cabernet Sauvignon planted in a rehabilitated gravel quarry in weathered granite and koffieklip soils and the Chardonnay grown in quartz soils that show up in the wine’s mineral-spiked texture.
And both come from some serious pedigree, with 4½-star Platter ratings for their previous vintages, which also brought a Decanter Gold for the Gravel Quarry Cab (2017) and Silver for the Quartz Stone Chardonnay (2018).
The latest vintage Gravel Quarry Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 (R445) proved to be the perfect partner to some perfectly grilled steak on a recent chilly evening — velvety smooth, deep intense ripe berry flavours, distinct spiciness and oak core with a spiky pepperiness that lingers on the finish.
Quite simply, a very memorable wine experience.
Glen Carlou was one of the pioneers of chardonnay in SA, under its founding owner Walter Finlayson, who made the first vintage in 1988 in an air-conditioned shipping container as the farm didn’t yet have cellar facilities.
The estate was later sold to the California-based Hess Collection and entrenched its chardonnay track record as the first SA wine to score above 90 points in Wine Spectator and was included in the magazine’s top 100 wines of the world.
Glen Carlou returned to SA ownership in 2016, and gained a new cellarmaster in Johnnie Calitz — those changes leading to renovations of the property, especially the visitors’ centre with its restaurant and impressive art gallery, and investments in vineyard replanting.
The changes seem to have breathed new life into the well-established brand, with the awards mentioned above coming for Calitz’s first vintages with Glen Carlou, while his assistant, Phillip Theron, claimed the Diners Club Young Winemaker of the Year title in 2020 — no wonder then we’re being invited to “rediscover the magic”!
Meanwhile, the new release 2020 Quartz Stone Chardonnay (R322) is another delight — complex and subtly creamy with aromatic citrus, peach and buttered toast leading into fresh lime that balances rich butterscotch, with touches of marmalade and nuttiness. It’s a real chardonnay lover’s treat.
Chardonnay also provides the ingredients for the Glen Carlou Blanc de Blancs Brut 2018 (R320), with 30 months on the lees making for an MCC balancing rich creaminess with fresh apple minerality, and the estate’s chardonnay focus continuing in another three versions — one wooded and two unwooded.
While the Gravel Quarry and the Quartz Stone might be a bit heftily-priced for everyday drinking for most of us, Glen Carlou offers great value in its more “standard” ranges, which still present premium quality mostly priced just under R100 and around R150, while the Grand Classique at R200 is one of the best bang-for-buck classic Bordeaux blends around.
Glen Carlou wines are fairly widely available in retail locally — the prices above from Makro are pretty similar to the online prices direct from the estate.