This week I am not bringing you a wide selection of wines, as I usually do.
No, I am bringing you just one. It’s called Hedonist. It’s well named.
A hedonist is someone who is motivated by desire for sensual pleasures in life.
In my book, Hedonist wine is a posh wine. It’s not for everyday drinking and you won’t be able to find it in a supermarket. But sometimes, to taste something truly special, you have to go out of your way to track a bottle down. Once I sipped this wine I was in love. It’s not big and heavy like a Cab Sav blend, and it doesn’t have the edge of some Pinotages, it’s soft, rich, rounded and smooth. To use a technical term; gorgeous.
David Cope and Simon Wibberly have combined their wine knowledge and marketing skills to become, as they describe it, boutique wine producers.
Working with Craig Perkins, of the Lammershoek Winery in Paardeberg, they have created a wine which has developed a bit of a cult following in the Western Cape and Cape Town in particular.
Called Hedonist, this is a Rhone style wine, reminscent of the Chateauneuf du Pape region. Made from old bush vines, the charme method is used to extract as much flavour from the grapes as possible. This includes extracting juice by trampling the grapes by foot. The wine is vinified at Lammershoek and then bottled and left to age and settle in Stellenbosch.
The result is a wine which can be described as voluptuous, ripe, rich and smooth. They only produce 5 barrels a year, and distribution is limited. In Cape Town you’d have to visit & Union, La Boheme Restaurant or you could nip around to Liam Tomlin’s Chefs Warehouse and he might still have a few bottles left.
Or call David on 082 670 0690 and he’ll deliver directly.
The price is R120 retail and R200+ in a restaurant.
Hedonist – Swartland Red Wine.
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