Description
The 2017 Naudé Werfdans is a remarkable 100% Cinsault that showcases both complexity and elegance. Initially broody and restrained, the wine slowly reveals its perfumed bouquet of pressed violets, red bramble berries, wild strawberry, sour cherry, and sun-dried cranberry, complemented by signature top notes of rose petals, crushed granite minerality, and Turkish delight. On the palate, it’s packed with density, concentration, and power, yet the wine remains effortless and graceful. The bright acidity frames the youthful fruit, adding structure, while the finish delivers delicate, mineral-driven tannins with a fine, stony texture. This is a wine that will age beautifully, gaining even more complexity over the next 10-15+ years.
Food Pairing: Ideal with game birds, poultry, veal, pasta, ravioli, and soft cheeses.
Reviews
JancisRobinson.com 17/20
Ian Naude tells me, ‘I wanted Stelly Cab and instead I got Darling Cinsault!’ From a vineyard planted in 1968. Thrumming with life, an acrobatic energy, a pixelation of spices. Pulled as taut as a suspension bridge. This is taking Cinsault and the vineyard down to the bone. Tastes like strawberries spilled on stones, white pepper. Lean and fragrant. [Tamlyn Carrin, 30/06/2023]
Greg Sherwood 97
Finally ready for release 6 years after vintage, the 2017 Werfdans Cinsault is undoubtedly one of the most exciting wines Ian has released to date under his own Naude Wines label. From an exceptional vintage, the 2017 is altogether tighter, tauter and more compact than the opulent and gregarious Werfdans 2016, coming across as a more serious, confident and highly composed expression of old vine Cinsault. Ian already makes some of the most regaled expressions of serious old vine Cinsault in South Africa, but the 2017 takes quality up another notch or two. The aromatics are initially a little more broody and restrained with a slow perfumed release of pressed violets, red bramble berry fruits, wild strawberry, sour cherry, sun raisined cranberry and the signature top notes of rose petals, crushed granite minerality and Turkish delight. The palate is packed as tight as a sailor s sea chest, with a fruit density, concentration and power delivered with an effortless elegance. Always deliciously fresh and crystalline, the bright acids help frame the youthful palate fruit adding further structural integrity, finally yielding on the finish to delicately drying, mineral, fine grained stony tannins. This is an incredibly striking, long awaited fine wine release that all committed Cinsault aficionados are going to be seduced by. Drink on release and over the next 20+ years. [Greg Sherwood, 26/04/2023]
Neal Martin 93
The 2017 Old Vine Cinsault comes from 37-year-old vines in Darling. It is pure and elegant on the nose, featuring red cherries and crushed strawberry fruit and turning more floral with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with fleshy tannins, pastille-like purity and a beautifully defined finish. This is one of Ian Naude’s most elegant wines, and though it will surely drink young, it will age with style. [Neal Martin, 31/10/2019]
Producer Profile
Ian Naudé’s wines are unlike anything else.
His range of wines are made up of esoteric pockets of old and new vines that tell a story about South African heritage. He did so fearlessly, believing that South African wine, if made honestly, and without compromise can come to rival the finest wines in the world. And slowly the international wine cognoscenti have started believing it too, as demonstrated by their rave reviews year-on-year.
