Cape Town - Boplaas Family Vineyards outside Calitzdorp in the Klein Karoo has won the category for port wines in the 2017 Novare SA Terroir Wine Awards with the Boplaas Cape Vintage 2014.
This is not the first time the Boplaas Cape Vintage 2014 has impressed as it was awarded 4½ stars in the authoritative 2016 Platters wine guide.
Boplaas also won the top sauvignon blanc award for its Boplaas Bobbejaanberg Sauvignon Blanc 2016 in the Klein Karoo, Swartberg and Prince Albert ward, while the Boplaas Heritage White Muscadel 2014 won the sweet fortified wine category.
The Boplaas Cape Vintage 2014 was crafted from a trio of hand-harvested, old vine Portuguese varieties, namely touriga nacional, tinta barocca and souzao.
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Regarded by many in Portugal as the premier grape variety and the mainstay of many fine ports over the years, touriga nacional has become a passion at Boplaas and dominates the blend in the Cape Vintage 2014.
Although tinta barocca made its way to Boplaas by fluke – the Boplaas patriarch Danie Nel mistook it for shiraz in the late 1970s – it has become an essential part of port as well as table wines at the estate.
It was Danie’s son and current owner and cellar master, Carel Nel, who discovered the mistake while studying oenology at Stellenbosch University.
Traditional vinification techniques are employed in the production of Boplaas port wines, including extensive manual pigeage in open top lagares and ageing in old large-format oak barrels, prior to bottling unfined and unfiltered.
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