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Boris
Sadie Family
Columella
2016
4.4
Region
South Africa › Western Cape › Coastal Region › Swartland › WO Swartland
Type
red · still
Grapes
Monastrell, Tinta Barroca, Syrah, Grenache, Cinsault
Alcohol
13.5%
Volume
750 mL
Sugar
1.6 g/L
Tasting Notes(2)
4.4
Mind-blowing wine. It's a mixture of dark berries, black stone fruits, smoke, spices, tobacco, black olives and toffee. Multilayered, complex, evolving, silky and perfectly balanced. It's so juicy, and the fruit is so good! Quaffable delicacy. And it's still so young!
About
Columnela is a Syrah-based blend with Mourvèdre, Grenache, Carignan, Cinsaut and Tinta Barocca. The grapes are sourced from Paardeberg (2 vineyards), Kasteelberg (4 vineyards), Malmesbury (1 vineyard) and Piquetberg (1 vineyard). The vines grow on granite, slate, gravel and sandstone formations.
After harvesting, the grapes are sorted by hand in small "strawberry" cases. Fermentation takes place spontaneously in 3300-litre open concrete fermenters for about three weeks at a temperature of 24°C and is then followed by a post-fermentation maceration of another three weeks. No additions are made to the fermenting wine. Pressing takes place in a traditional basket press. The wine is transferred to the barrel (5% new) for malolactic fermentation.
The wine spends 12 months on the lees in tight-grain French oak barrels, just 5% of them new. The wine is then racked into big oval casks (foudres) for an additional year of maturation on the fine lees. After a total of two years, the wine is bottled without fining or filtration.
This 2016 Columella has a much deeper colour and concentration and is still very compact and in need of obvious ageing, but it is already showing great complexity in that the aromatics are not a singular line, but the coming together of many aspects. The aromas are a combination of bright fresh red fruits which then pass over to the riper black stone fruit. The wine is also very earthy and seems to live on a bed of freshly ploughed earth - and then there is the appearance of much darker graphite aromatics as well.
The reality is that with our refinement in vinification, especially after 2010, our wines are made in more reductive style and they may appear more austere in their youth, but allow this wine time to age, or space to breathe, and one will find incredible layers of complexity that at times were maybe more monolithic in the earlier vintages. To wait on a wine is the most normal thing...
Displayed very dark red fruit that seemed to be all coiled up in tannins and very neatly woven together. The wine is under tension and rightfully so. The focus in this wine is serious and all in all this one shows very high potential and reminds one of a mega complex helix - the only aspect that will reveal the true potential is time! This wine should be left alone for at least the first decade plus and will drink well into 2048 and possibly beyond.
