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Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Nederburg The Winemasters Reserve Western Cape Noble Late Harvest 2011 92+ Points



Sauternes is the benchmark Noble Late Harvest style as well as a fair amount of very fine example from around the world and South Africa is not shy of stellar examples, often over delivering on price points, with the majority of ad hoc Noble Late release being just shy of the R 150 average price per 375ml bottle, but wait until you have discovered Nederburg Noble Late, it is amazing how year on year, Razvan Macici and team achieve such a consistency in quality, complexity and purity, yet remain the best priced Noble Late in South Africa if not the world at less than R 60 /bottle, trade, a feat to be commended and shows it is possible to produce very high quality without hefty price tag and no nonsense justification, in return making this wine a favorite candidate for wine listing and by the glass offerings.

2011 seems to be much paler in hue with a bright pale gold, revealing a clean and precise botrytis complexity with baked orange, pineapples and honey, subtle oaking.

Sweet yet not cloying, lively acid burst, textured and creamy with a perfect alcohol of 12% abv, round, long and persistent, now until 2028+