Tag Archives: 16/20

KWV Mentors Orchestra 2013

TLDR:  Distinguished but pricy. Cellar until at least 2018 //
Quality: 16/20 //
Price: R270 – R300 (as of Sept 2016) //
Value: 2/5 //
Ponce factor: Moderate to High //
Occasion: Dinner for two (You don’t want to have to share this with too many people) //
Key words: Bordeaux blend //
Vivino rating //

Tasting notes:

Like the original Total Recall; ludicrously lengthy & gratuitously brawny.
Colour is a superbly intense, with vanguard aromas of classic Cab Sauvy pencil shavings & ripe cassis.
Palate is denser than the Governator, with heavy plums, more blackcurrant notes, and some positively gargantuan tannins. My bet would be that this guy will shine a little brighter after a few years in the cellar. Like a long-awaited cinematic remake with better colour and more convincing CGI.

To fill those awkward silences…

Aside from the fact that this is a KWV Mentors range wine (read more about that here), there are a few other chat-worthy elements to this wine. Not least of all is the fact that winemaker Johann Fourie has gone the whole hog and included FIVE of six permitted bordeaux varieties.

Bordeaux’s family five

A red Bordeaux-style blend refers to any wine made up of two or more of the five* Bordeaux grape varieties. If you’ve ever wandered down a supermarket wine aisle, even semi-conscious, then you will have seen most of these: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot & Malbec.

Trying to remember all these can be a bit of buzzkill, so I’ve crafted you a verbal family portrait instead:
Dad: Cabernet Sauvignon – a sage fellow (herbal notes present), full of stature (big tannins) with many years behind him (tannins and acidity give CS great aging potential)
Mom: Merlot – gentle natured (less intense than CS), with soft, feminine curves (tannins far more moderate than CS), and rosy cheeks (usually carrying soft red fruit on the palate)
Gym bunny older brother: Petit Verdot – super dense, super brawny (muscular tannins). Usually recognized in pure form thanks to its inky black-ish purple colour. Like a testorestone-fuelled adolescent, it usually comes with a fair share of intensity (dense ripe sweet black fruits).
Precocious teenage daughter: Cabernet Franc – Blossoms early, smells great, leaves its pleasant bouquet wherever it goes.
Baby: Malbec. Often consumed very young when bottled as a varietal wine (especially New world regions…French Malbecs can age longer). Like Petit Verdot, it adds intense colour to the mix.
*(technically Carmenere is No.6, but I ran out of family members. And if you can find a local Bordeaux blend with Carmenere in it, I’ll eat my hat…and wash it down with said carmenere-loving Bordeaux blend)

Eikendal Charisma 2013

TLDR:  A shiraz-lover’s dream with plenty to talk about //
Quality: 16/20 //
Price: R115 (as of Sept 2016) //
Value: 4/5 //
Ponce factor: Moderate //
Occasion: As comfy at a Friday night dinner as it is as a mid-week pick-me-up //
Key words: Sangiovese, Spice, Platters //
Vivino rating //

Tasting notes:

Colour is a dense, youthful crimson with legs like a female shotput champ – intimidating, but mesmerizing.

The palate reads like a Shiraz with cloves, violets & blackberries filling most of the frame. That said, the sweet black fruit that lingers longer than a pigeon on a Rhodes statue must be in part due to the 17% Petit Verdot. Not to mention the grippy tannins that pop up on the caboose. The red cherry acidity is delightfully clean & elegant, and while the blend holds only 5% Sangiovese, I can’t help feel like the Italian variety is responsible.

To fill those awkward silences…

No doubt about it, this is a weird blend by anyone’s standards. Eikendal themselves sell it as “a blend that will make sense when it’s in your glass”, because, hell, it makes very little sense on paper. You have two potentially brawny nightclub-bouncer-type varieties in the form of the Shiraz and Petit Verdot, but then toss in a teeny-tiny 5% of the moderately bodied Sangiovese? It’s a bit like having a Barbershop Trio (from Skokey Illinois) made up of James Hetfield, Chris Cornell, and… Elliot Smith. Weird mental image, right? Totally.

And yet, begrudgingly one must admit that it makes sense in the glass. Which makes for great dinner time convo for any ponces that you care to invite to the dinner table.

Shiraz delivers delightful pepper and cloves notes, which are pretty obvious on this wine. Petit Verdot delivers super-dense sweet black fruit, and (IMO) the sangiovese is punching above its weight to deliver some red cherry acidity. But forget about what I have to say. Discuss it amongst yourselves. The following questions should keep you busy long enough:
1. “Does it really work to double up a shiraz over a petit verdot?”
2. “Can you taste the cherry tomato notes that the sangiovese brings to the table?”
3. “Did you get my clever pun? When I said “brings to the table”, it was funny because it is both literal and figurative. Because we’re at a table. Get it?”
4. “Will this guy get better if we cellar him for a year or two?” (FYI, the answer is “yes”)

Finally, while Platters ratings may have their critics, if you can nail a Platters 4-Star wine for under R120 then you are winning. The combined joy of price and a convo-worthy blend of mis-matched varieties (according to conventional wisdom) makes this a decent offering. Drink three now, and cellar three for 2018.