Boplaas Family Vineyards is back in the limelight for the outstanding quality of its wines after being named one of the top producers at the authoritative National Wine Challenge. For receiving Double Platinum at the show, no less than two of its wines have been included in the hotly-contested list of Top 100 SA Wines this year.
The double platinum winners were the Boplaas Colheita Cape Tawny 2005 and the current vintage of Boplaas Gamka Red 2020 – the Calitzdorp winery’s flagship red.
“We’re always happy to receive acknowledgement for our wines,” says Boplaas patriarch and winemaking veteran Carel Nel. “These particular awards are significant because they show the consistency of quality over many vintages, but also across styles.”
The Boplaas Colheita Cape Tawny 2005 is a dated tawny, meaning from a single harvest. A true testament to patience and craftsmanship, the port was made from a selection of Tinta Barocca and Touriga Nacional grapes. It was aged for 16 years in old Portuguese Pipes before being bottled. Only 3 600 bottles were ever produced.
In his notes on the wine, Carel says, “the lusciously complex fortified wine with its amber colour, heady aromatics and nutty flavour profile, offers those lucky enough to broach a bottle or two to taste a rare and fine example of Boplaas Cape Tawny!”
The wine received five stars in the 2022 edition of the esteemed Platter’s South African wine guide.
The Boplaas Gamka Red 2020 is a blend of the Portuguese varieties Touriga Nacional, Tinta Barocca, Touriga Franca and Souzão. It was aged for 12 months in new and second-fill French oak barrels. It is an emotive wine and when it first launched, a name had to be found that matched its intensity. The answer came from a major local river, a life-giving artery to the region.
The Khoisan people named the river that originates in the Great Karoo and carves its way through the mighty Swartberg Range, the Gamka (meaning lion). It is thought this was due to the noise the usually placid waterway made when in flood, literally roaring through ravines and savagely bursting its banks to sweep away all in its path.
The wine itself billows aromas of black hedgerow fruit, tart cranberry, ripe plum notes, spice and fynbos, while rolling onto the palate and into a long finish.
