Olifantsberg Soul of the Mountain The Bull 2021
£23.95
The wine
A wild red blend with notes of sage, spicy bramble and red berry fruit leading to an engaging palate with good fruit definition and intensity, bright acidity and layered tannins.
The Bull is the red half of the Soul of the Mountain pair, a southern Rhône blend of Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre and Carignan. Carignan is the least fashionable of the four and among the most useful, giving colour, acidity and structure from old vines. Made only in the best years and released with age.
The producer
Olifantsberg
View all Olifantsberg winesOlifantsberg lies on the slopes of the Elephant Mountain in the Breedekloof, an inland valley in the Western Cape that has long supplied fruit to others and only recently begun making its name in its own right.
The estate's holdings climb the mountainside on decomposed shale and sandstone, and altitude is what makes the site work: the Breedekloof floor is hot, but these vineyards sit high enough to catch cooler air and hold their acidity. Winemaker Elizma Visser has built the range around Rhone varieties and old-vine Chenin Blanc, which is an unusual combination and a well-judged one for this ground.
South Africa's old Chenin plantings are among its greatest assets, dry-farmed bush vines that crop very little and give real concentration, and the Cape has more Chenin than the Loire itself. The Soul of the Mountain wines are the flagship pair, named The Matriarch and The Bull, and they are made only in vintages that warrant them.
