Keep The Chill At Bay With World-class Boplaas Cape Tawny

Wine brand

Many great winemakers of Portugal – the heart of port wine – rate tawny as their favourite. The style is created when port matures in barrel for decades, causing it to transform in colour, aroma and taste.

Boplaas prides itself on counting this style among its top wines. While Boplaas Cape Vintage Reserve like the 2020, Platter’s wine guide Port of the Year, is a flagship beverage, it’s the tawny-like single vintage Colheita that occupies an extra special place in the portfolio.

Over the years, the Calitzdorp winery has bottled and released only a few vintage tawnies, with tinta barocca being the ideal variety for the job. They are the 1980, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2005 and the current 2007.

“These wines occupy a category all to themselves,” says Carel Nel, Boplaas cellarmaster and veteran port wine maker. “Given time, the contents of the barrel are transformed into a splendid treat. Think of nutty fruitcake and dried fruits that fill your senses, coat your palate, and linger.”

The Boplaas portfolio includes:

  • Boplaas Cape Tawny Colheita 2005

Rated as Port of the Year by Tim Atkin (Master of Wine).  This is a classic tawny with a lovely brick-brown colour, showing rich aromatics and flavours. 

  • Boplaas Cape Tawny 1997

The wine is a blend of Tinta Barocca, Touriga Nacional and Souzao.  It is aged 12 years in barrels. The winemaker notes it as being rich and sleek “with superb integration”.  The wine received five stars from the Platter’s wine guide and Double Gold at Veritas.  

  • Boplaas Cape Tawny 1994

Tinta Barocca, Touriga Nacional, Souzao are blended for this wine. It spent 14 years in barrel and impressed the Platter’s guide panel, which awarded it five stars. 

  • Boplaas Cape Tawny NV

This wine is a permanent feature of the Boplaas range and comprises Tinta Barroca and Touriga Nacional. The components were aged for 10 to 15 years in barrels.  In addition to typical tawny characters, the wine also shows orange peel and outstanding integration. 

The wines and Single Vintage Colheitas from Boplaas are mostly available from our tasting rooms in Calitzdorp, and along the Garden Route at the newly revamped Red Berry Farm outside George and Old Nick Village in Plettenberg Bay.  The Boplaas Cape Tawny NV is available in selected bottle stores countrywide.