Naude Wines 'Oupa Willem' Old Vines Western Cape 2020 750ml

SOUTH AFRICA : WESTERN CAPE

NATURAL : Cinsault, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc

MED-BODIED   CRANBERRY   ROSE HIP   DRIED HERB   GRAPHITE   OLD OAK

Ian Naudé spent thirty years working harvests on four continents before building Naudé Family Wines in Stellenbosch — a project anchored entirely in sourcing certified Old Vine fruit from Western Cape heritage vineyards. He named this wine after his grandfather, a man he never met, whose philosophy was simple: his horse and dog came first, and the rest of the world second. The wine is built as a deliberate reference to the Cape blends of the 1950s and ’60s — before South African wine became formulaic.

The blend is 82% Cinsault from a 1968 Darling vineyard — 52-year-old vines, OVP-certified, on decomposed sandstone near the Atlantic coast — with 13% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Cabernet Franc. Naturally fermented with 40% whole bunches, aged in older French oak, it sits at 11.5%. Cranberry, rose-hip, dried herb, and graphite define the nose; the palate is tart and precise, with powdery tannins and structural tension that builds over decades.

Tom Cannavan (wine-pages.com, 94 pts) wrote: “the palate has such intense, inherent sweetness of cranberry and redcurrant, with some of the tartness of those berries and a background of warming clove spice — I have absolutely no doubt that this ultimately delicious wine will age well for decades.” The 2020 vintage also received 96+ from Greg Sherwood MW, 17.5 from Jancis Robinson.com, 93 from Neal Martin, and 4.5 stars from Platter’s Wine Guide 2024.