Description
This signature wine is the bedrock of Stark-Conde, showcasing the excellence of the Jonkershoek Valley. Blended with traditional Bordeaux varietals, it reveals rich blackberry fruit aromas, complemented by tea-leaf and cedar wood notes. The palate is polished and full of dark fruit and mocha flavors, with balanced acidity and a long finish, highlighted by the fine tannins typical of the valley. Aged for 20 months in French oak (30% new), this wine is bottled without fining or filtration.
Food Pairing:
Pairs beautifully with beef, lamb, poultry, or vegetables.
Reviews
Greg Sherwood 92+
The 2020 Stark Conde Cabernet Sauvignon is another charming wine with an alluring aromatics of pressed violets, sweet piquant black berries, black cherry, burnt wood embers, sweet cedar wood shavings and a stony graphite spice that wafts from the glass. The palate is fresh and vibrant, deep and layered, with a core of zippy black currant fruits, soft black plum nuances, black cherries, fine grained tannins, and a sumptuous depth of spicy granitic minerality. A very well honed, harmonious, full bodied Cabernet Sauvignon expression that combines a wonderful balance, finesse and harmony with the characteristic Jonkershoek Valley fruit intensity and structure. Drink on release and over 10+ years comfortably. [Greg Sherwood MW, 24/09/2024]
JancisRobinson.com 17.5
A quiet nose, red-black fruit thrumming under the cover of last year s eucalyptus leaves. And then nothing, absolutely nothing quiet about the rippling, glossy, stallion-power beauty of the fruit on the palate. Leanly muscled, not an ounce of fat, fluid power, grace. Seriously… this costs 24.99?! The purity of the fruit, which is Cab Sav within every molecule of its life, is thrilling. It’s cassis dark, bay-leaf-scented, box-leaf fresh, densely woven, finely woven, peppered with paprika notes. So, so, so fresh and firecracker juiciness. There’s a gypsy-wild glint of mica, a blade in the darkness, wiped on dew-wet grass, but the wine itself has an almost military discipline, every inch of beauty controlled. Saville Row, eat your heart out. (TC) [Tamlyn Currin, 27/02/2024]
Anticipated maturity: 2022-2030
