Botanica Arboretum 2017 wins top prize in Winemag’s Cape Bordeaux Red Blend Report 2019
Botanica Arboretum 2017 placed first in Winemag.co.za’s fifth annual Cape Bordeaux Red Blend Report, earning an outstanding score of 94 points. As the producer of the report’s top overall wine, Botanica owner and winemaker Ginny Povall was thrilled to be awarded a new 300-litre French oak barrel from Tonnellerie Sylvain.
The results were announced at a function on Morgenster Estate in Somerset West on 9 July, 2019.
The judging was chaired by Winemag’s Executive Editor Christian Eedes, who was joined by panelists Roland Peens and James Pietersen, both of Cape Town’s fine wine merchant Wine Cellar. Tasting was done blind, with wines rated on a 100-point scale.
A total of 65 entries were received from 53 producers, and according to Eedes, “the most successful wines in this tasting managed to combine flavour intensity with freshness and structure.”
Aboretum 2017, a blend of 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Cabernet Franc, 21% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot, was organically farmed on Ginny Povall’s Protea Heights farm in Devon Valley, Stellenbosch. The top-scoring wine was praised by the judges for its “wonderful fruit purity and fine tannins – poised, properly detailed and super-long.”
To read the complete 2019 Cape Bordeaux red blend report, click here