Just back from Portugal and my rave for the Boplaas Gamka in my tiny column shakes the Karoo like a Simba Chip at communion
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Roaring with flavour

Bottle of the Week: Boplaas Gamka Family Reserve 2013

How much and where?

R175; www.boplaas.co.za

Why? I used to think the river flowing through Calitzdorp was the Nelsrivier because so many Nels grow grapes on its banks. The boets Nels at De Krans and the Carel Nels at Boplaas. But I’m informed the river is called Gamka, the Khoi-San word for lion, for when it comes down in flood, as it does once a decade, it roars like a lion.

And this wine also roars – with flavour. But with a Portuguese accent. For it is a crafty blend of touriga francesca, shiraz, touriga nacional and tinta barocca. A glimpse of what SA wine would have tasted like if Vasco da Gama and Bartholomeu Dias had brought grape vines along on their voyages to the Indies, instead of stone crosses .

As climate change proceeds, tourigas and tintas are increasingly making the money in a Cape too hot for quality sauvignon blanc and pinot noir. Shiraz looks a bit out of place in the blend but it’s an accident of history.

When Carel Nel’s father, Danie, planted shiraz vines in the Calitzdorp desert three decades ago to make the Rhone-style wines he admired, he mistakenly planted tinta barocca. The result was the burgeoning port industry, which has Portuguese producers on the Douro up in arms when they taste the wonderful fortified wines from producers like Boplaas.

The secret of Boplaas ports is to get daughters with small feet to crush the grapes prior to fermentation.

Rating: ****

***** Gariep

**** Kamdeboo

*** Tsitsikamma

** Hantam

* Karoo