#179 Niel Joubert Reserve Tempranillo 2020
Tempranillo: Icon Style
🗺 Niel Joubert Estate is based in Paarl, South Africa.
🍷 The Niel Joubert Reserve Tempranillo is made more in the vein of an old school Rioja Red, and does nothing in half-measures. Paarl is an unambiguously hot region, the grapes are harvested at 25+ balling, and 60% of the wine is matured in 100% new oak. But the generous nature of the New World fruit, and the inclusion of a fresher tank-fermented component results in a pleasant alternative to South Africa’s ubiquitous Pinotages, Shirazes and even Merlots.
If you have yet to sign up for your Monthly HanDrinksSolo Wine Subscription then you’ll have to hunt this wine down in your own time. But until then, here are my tasting notes and some technical specs on the wine in the bottle.
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Tasting Notes
👃🏼 A medium nose of potting soil, red cherry, and red plum, which then unfurls quite nicely over time to reveal some fennel, vanilla, cedarwood, orange rind & lavender.
👄 Mouthfeel is medium weighted, with impressively tall, juicy, red cherry acidity up front, complicated by hints of vanilla and cinnamon, as well as a burst of purple flowers. With time in the glass, the acidity softens, revealing slightly riper plum fruit, Grenache-like cherry candy notes, and hints of blackcurrant pastille.
It’s a young wine, which explains the somewhat obtrusive nature of the grippy plum skin tannins on the tail. But like any PYT, what it lacks in refinement, it makes up for in brightness and berry freshness.
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Technical Specs
🔬100% Tempranillo – clone TP4. Fermented using NT50 Anchor yeast, designed to boost berry elements like cherry, raspberry, and strawberry. 60% matured in 100% new French Oak. 40% rested in Stainless Steel tanks.
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