Description
The 2021 Paserene Marathon from Stellenbosch shows a stunning black-to-purple color, reflecting the quality of the hand-sorted berries. The wine’s nose offers aromas of black currants, creme de cassis, balsamic, dried flowers, black peppercorns, and allspice, presenting great complexity. On the palate, the wine showcases well-integrated tannins and a harmonious balance of tannin, fruit, alcohol, and oak, making it a wine with great elegance, body, and weight. It can age for decades if cellared correctly.
Food pairing:
Fatty meats (like lamb or ribeye), game birds, aged cheeses, roasted salted nuts.
Producer Profile
Martin Smith is the winemaker and part-owner of Pasarene Wines, with its tasting room in Franschhoek and vineyards there, Tulbagh and Elgin. A collaboration between Martin and businessman Ndavhe Mareda it was first created in 2013 based on Martin’s vision to make his two favourite wines, a Chardonnay and Cab-like wine. (Which explains the selection today.)
Born in Worcester, also home to legendary South African winemakers like Abrie Beeslaar (previously of Kanonkop, now Beeslaar wines), Martin is a third-generation winemaker, his grandfather made wine in Paarl, and seemingly the juice was in his veins from an early age. Having done a stint at a cork factory in Portugal and completed his studies at Elsenburg, Martin became a flying winemaker for over ten years, making wine all over America, and finally at the LVMH-owned Newton Winery in Saint Helena, where he was there winemaker for 5 years. Having never intended to be away from South Africa for so long, he soon found a job at Vilafonté, where he worked with Dr. Phil Freese and Zelma Long for six years before starting Paserene officially in 2013 to make his own Bordeaux-style wines and Chardonnay.
The name Pasarene is derived from the Latin Passeriformes, in reference to the largest order of “travelling and free” birds, among them the swift and swallow, both birds that have come to represent Martin’s travels and his return home. Each label contains a story of the wine, place and man, and put together by leading South African artists, miniaturist Lorraine Loots, Carmen Ziervogel, and Lauren Ann McCarthy. The wines are a tribute to our portfolio and we invite you to get to know them now.
Reviews
Tim Atkin 92
Part of an impressive current line-up from Martin Smith and Evert Rautenbach, this varietal Cabernet Sauvignon comes from granite soils in Tulbagh. The 50% new French oak is well done here, framing and complementing a dense, focused palate of cassis, blueberry and dried herbs. 2025-35 [Tim Atkin MW, 27/06/2024]
Anticipated maturity: 2025-2035
