Beautiful Bonnievale

Howdy y'all,

Today's topic: Bonnievale Wine Cellar! And since they only have 3 Premium Wines, this should be a very short email (for a change). The premium range is the Vertex range and consists of a Chardonnay, a Cab Sauv and a Shiraz. Before going on to the wines, I'd just like to remark at how beautiful the landscape is in Bonnievale, not only do the gentle hills and outstretching winelands give the land a sense of wealth and nobility, but there are numerous areas where the sides of the streets are lined by row-after-row of beautiful flower hedges. If you've never been out to this part of the world, I highly recommend going out here during the warm seasons for a truly inspirational landscape that will make you proud to be a South African.

As for the wines in this cellar, the Vertex Chardonnay (R45) had a lot more of that barrel coming through with those rich tones of butterscotch, marzipan and vanilla coming through, but not so much as to overwhelm the soft and juicy peach smells and tastes. The Vertex Cab Sauv (R60) was also a very well-balanced wine, with overtones of black currant, but lovely nuances of raspberries and mulberries, with mocha and cedar giving it a bit of strength and weight to the taste. The final wine was the Vertex Shiraz (R60) which was more my style of shiraz, with fresh meat smells mixed with vanilla and hints of candy floss - and to finish off, it had a bite of black pepper and cloves on the taste, and left with a final taste of instant coffee along with ripe berries. Great value for money and a perfect wine to take along to a braai.

Well, that's the end for today. I'm hoping to have a bit of time next week to do some serious blogging, especially since I'm at least 30 farms behind now (I've been solidly tasting this week). Although once I'm done with that, I'll be pretty silent.

Until later,
Val