No less than five wines from Boplaas Family Vineyards have been rated among South Africa’s best by globally influential connoisseur Tim Atkin MW. Crowning the achievement, Boplaas Cape Vintage Reserve 2022 was named Fortified Wine of the Year – the fourth consecutive year the Calitzdorp producer has received this accolade.
Every year, Atkin tours the country to compile one of the most comprehensive tastings of South African wines for his authoritative special report. For the latest edition, he tasted a total of 2 259 wines.
Boplaas’s five top performers received 90/100 points and more, with the Cape Vintage Reserve 2022 receiving 95. Among his most significant assessments, Atkin awarded the 2005 Cape Vintage Reserve Port 94 points, which re-affirms the outstanding longevity of Cape Ports made by Boplaas.
Furthermore, the classic Cape Tawny Port NV and 1995 vintage both also received a rating of 94 points. These wines owe much of their excellent character to meticulous ageing in old oak barrels of Portuguese and French origins. The wine is transformed after a decade or more of maturation, morphing into a rich elixir with a red-brown hue and rich flavours of nuts and dried fruit.
Boplaas ports are all made from the Portuguese varieties – Touriga Nacional, Tinta Barocca, Souzao and Touriga Franca, which thrive in the Klein Karoo climate.
Their arrival in Calitzdorp happened by chance, when patriarch Danie Nel, ordered Shiraz wines from a nursery in the Cape. Years later, his son, Carel Nel, realised the mistake and his professor at Stellenbosch University identified the variety as Tinta Barocca.
Rounding out the list of Boplaas’s champion wines included in Tim Atkin’s report is the Boplaas Gamka Branca 2022, a white blend aged in older oak, which received 90 points.
The complete range of Boplaas wines are all available from the online shop, the winery in Calitzdorp and tastings rooms at Redberry Farm near George and Hart & Bosch Village in Hartenbos.
For more information, visit www.boplaas.co.za, email admin@boplaas.co.za or call 044 213 3326.