2021 Porseleinberg
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Tasting notes
The latest release of Porseleinberg – a wine that has, since its creation in 2010, rapidly become one of South Africa’s most sought-after – is unsurprisingly impressive, but with a finesse that suggests it could be Callie Louw’s best vintage to date. A long, cool growing season with sufficient rainfall resulted in a leisurely harvest in 2021, allowing the team to take their time to pick. Since the shift to submerged cap in 2018, quality here has leapt ahead. The 2021 shows a spicy, mineral intensity – with the fruit more subdued, taking a backseat to the stony structure and texture of the wine. It’s supple, flowing across the palate like silk, yet with a super-fine grip of mineral tannins and the shy fruit that points to its immense age-worthiness. Savoury herbal tones mingle with the red fruit, while there’s a saline freshness and spicy pepper tones that linger on the long finish. Amazingly approachable now, it will only improve with a couple of years in bottle and continue to evolve over the next 15 years or so. Aged for 12 months in 95% foudre and 5% concrete, it was bottled in June 2022.
Critic scores
Average Score
Tim Atkin MW
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
The 2021 Porseleinberg is whole bunch fermented and aged for 12 months in foudres . I gave my glass plenty of aeration. Chatting with winemaker Callie Louw, this wine can be closed, this being the first time I had tasted it at the remote Swartland estate. It has a compelling bouquet with fabulous delineation, a mélange of, say, one-third red and two-thirds black fruit, hints of iron filings and reflecting its soils, slate-like scents. Obstinately backward, after 10 minutes, it positively blossoms in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied, with filigree tannins framing the mineral-rich black fruit. Plenty of extract is interwoven, but perhaps unlike the vintages of old, Louw's winemaking sense means that it's not immediately tangible. A discrete build in the mouth reveals hidden layers as it sashays towards its crunchy finish and then delivers a dash of cracked black pepper on the aftertaste. Outstanding…but what else do we expect?
What an intense nose of charcuterie, grilled herbs, iron, black berry fruit and cracked pepper. Flavor explosion on the palate, too, with a full body, yet so much freshness with an underlying iron and peppercorn character. Firm, yet fine tannins. Even better from 2025.
100% Syrah. The farm enjoyed a cold, wet winter with 390.5 mm of rain for the year. Budbreak was approximately two weeks late, starting during the first week of October. Cool, dry growing conditions kept disease pressure at bay, also resulting in a smaller berry-set, with smaller bunches. Some 34 mm of rain during early November was the mere difference between a difficult and a great vintage as from there on we received only 14 mm between mid November and the end of harvest, in March. A cool summer with minimal heatwaves resulted in a long, drawn-out vintage, allowing us to pick when grapes were at optimal ripeness. The harvest started on 5 February and finished on 3 March – very extended. Grapes were hand-picked and crushed as whole bunches into concrete fermentation tanks. Minimal pumpovers were performed with the cap submerged; the ferments ran cool and dry within 10 days. Maturation took place over 12 months, 95% in foudre and 5% in concrete egg. Bottled 26 June 2022 in the new facility. 15% of the blend is from new, three-year-old plants. 4,000 cases produced. Released end of September 2023. TA 4.7 g/l, pH 4.1, RS 1.6 g/l. Less-developed nose at the moment, still introvert but with the ingredients there. (JR)
About the producer
Porseleinberg is a single-site Syrah from the Swartland that has, since its first vintage in 2010, become one of South Africa’s most celebrated and sought-after wines. Made by cult winemaker Callie Louw from incredibly poor soils on the slopes of the Porseleinberg, the wine is rightfully revered.