Two wines from the Calitzdorp producer selected among the best of 103 entries
Boplaas Family Vineyards is one of the top performers at this year’s Winemag Minority Report having scored not only the second highest for a red wine, but also being one of just two producers with two wines among the best of 103 entries.
The Minority Report is compiled annually by Winemag, one of South Africa’s leading digital wine platforms. For the report, a specialist, three-member panel highlights outstanding wines made from grape varieties with total plantings in South Africa of 5 000ha or less. As such, the recognition awarded Boplaas re-affirms the Calitzdorp producer’s Midas Touch at every level. Where small-scale plantings commonly disappear as a blending component in wines, Boplaas shows its ability to deliver varietal excellence at the most fundamental level.
A close call for Boplaas Alvarinho
Taking a starring position was the 2023 Boplaas Touriga Nacional, which scored 94 points and was included among the Minority Report’s Top 8 wines. The 2024 Boplaas Alvarinho Family Reserve received 93 points. According to the judges, the wine narrowly missed inclusion as a Top 8 due to averaging of final scores that caused it to be pipped at the post by a decimal point.
Both Touriga Nacional and Alvarinho have long thrived in Portugal’s celebrated Douro Valley, whose climate is very similar to that of the Klein Karoo. The suitability of the region for Portuguese varieties was discovered a few decades ago and quite by chance after Danie Nel, late father of current owner Carel, ordered what he thought were Shiraz vines, but which were in fact Tinta Barocca. The mistake was uncovered by Carel while undertaking his wine studies at Stellenbosch University.
The result put him on the path to produce world class red and port-style wines from Portuguese varieties.
Carel’s daughter, Margaux, followed her father and completed her MSc degree at Stellenbosch, focussing on Touriga Nacional as red table wine.
Monarch of Portuguese vines
“Touriga Nacional is rightfully regarded as Monarch of Portuguese vines,” she says. “It’s a hardy vine that produces bunches of small dark berries.”
The 2023 Boplaas Touriga Nacional shows the variety’s typical heady aromatics, with characters of ripe black plum, kirsch, vibrant spice, fynbos and notes of cocoa nib. “It’s a powerfully elegant wine,” says Margaux.
As for Alvarinho, the grape is traditionally grown in northwest Portugal and Galicia, the coastal region of Spain where it is known as Albariño. Its vineyards are very rare in South Africa.
Boplaas’s 2024 vintage of this wine spent three months on the lees prior to bottling and is distinguished by its fresh and elegant fragrance that reveals the aromatic complexity of the variety.
The range of Portuguese variety table wines, along with the rest of the portfolio is available for purchase from the Boplaas online shop and selected retailers countrywide. The wines are also sold at Boplaas’s Garden Route tasting rooms at Redberry Farm in George and Hart & Bosch Village in Hartenbos, and at the winery in Calitzdorp.
For more information, email admin@boplaas.co.za, call 044 213 3326 or visit www.boplaas.co.za. Boplaas is also on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Boplaas1880/) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/boplaaswines).