The title of Best Port wine of 2021 has been awarded to Boplaas Family Vineyards. The announcement was made last week following the annual assessment of wines by Winemag.co.za, sponsored by Prescient. Its champion port wine was the Boplaas Cape Vintage Reserve 2009.
The competition panel, headed by respected wine critic Christian Eedes, identifies the Top 20 from almost 1 000 wines rated over the period of a year. The Boplaas wine emerged with a score of 96/100, also receiving the highest points overall in the category for Sweet and Fortified Wines.
The Boplaas Cape Vintage Reserve Port 2009 has won numerous awards including Double Gold at Veritas; five stars from Platter’s SA wine guide; and, Platinum and Best Dessert Wine at the Michelangelo International Wine and Spirit Awards.
The Boplaas Cape Vintage Reserve port is a shining star for the Nel family heritage of crafting the very finest Cape fortifieds utilising Portuguese varieties, traditional vinification and dedication to style.
The wine was produced from four Portuguese varieties – Touriga Nacional, Tinta Barocca, Souzão and Touriga Franca. Grapes were hand-harvested at optimal ripeness. They were then fermented in lagars, with intense manual pigeage to extract optimal flavour, colour and tannin pior to fortification with wine spirits. It matured for two years in old, large format, French oak barrels.
The 2009 showcases the ageability of the Boplaas ports. The colour is still ink-black, with very little indication of ageing. It displays power and intense flavour, with a long and lingering finish.
Visit the Boplaas online shop at www.boplaas.co.za to explore the winery’s range of older vintage ports. Boplaas ships across SA, free of charge on orders over R1 500.