LCBO Sale Wine of the Week: September 6
Thelema 2014 Mountain Red (Western Cape, South Africa)
Sale $11.15, Regular $13.65
Discount (until September 10): $2.50
LCBO #222570 | 750 mL bottle
Tastes like: Silky smooth ripe blue berries, cherry and plum, with sweet oak spice (just a little) and some smoky interest. Soft, deep and intriguing.
Pairs with: Just about anything in the meaty and substantial camp: burgers, steak, stew, Scotch broth, lasagna, meat-lover’s pizza, grilled or braised lamb, bison…
Good for: Hectic back-to-school mealtimes when the cook needs a little sip to get sane. Also good to polish off a bottle while packing a lunch of leftovers. Bonus: It’s a screw cap.
Alcohol: 14%
Drink: Now. (Or hold a few years.)
Why we're drinking this
South African wines offer tremendous value not to mention a winemaking heritage that goes back centuries. This Thelema comes from the mountains above the historic town of Stellenbosch, where winemaking traditions reach back to the end of the 17th century. An agriculture and viticulture hub, Stellenbosch (“the town of oaks”) is the country’s most recognizable wine region — you’ll see it on a lot of bottles in Ontario. This wine is a really neat blend of Bordeaux grapes (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot) and Rhone grapes (Grenache and Shiraz). It’s a fun, soft yet quite complex wine.
Tasting note
Brimming with plush black and red berry fruit, plum and smoky sweetness. Cab Sauv and Merlot are dominant (28% each) with Petit Verdot and Grenache picking up the slack (21% each) and just a smidge of Shiraz and Cab Franc (1% each). So the end result is exactly as it should be: a big juicy supple wine with ripe and easy tannins, medium acidity and tons of rich ripe fruit. It’s purely delicious. It was aged 18 months in old oak (from second to fourth fills). A complex and food friendly wine that’s also a nice sipper, as it has the body and softness to make it a fun drink. It’s dry, but the ripe fruit lends some serious heft. All is in balance. This wine could easily command double the price.
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