How does the mint get into my wine? That or something similar is what I asked myself when this Cabernet Sauvignon first arrived on my nose and palate. A little too full and lush - also in alcohol - for my taste. A slightly smaller proportion of new barrels would - in my opinion - also have done the wine good. The cellar master in charge probably saw it differently. Nevertheless: it is a good Cabernet wine, one of the best I have ever drunk. When I say something like that, some of my wine friends look at me stunned: One of the best wines? A South African! Yes, because it is precise, because it corresponds to the wine region (I say terroir again), because it has absorbed the warmth, but also the cooler winds as if. And - in addition - this little flick. Mint notes. They are said to come from the eucalyptus trees, because their scent apparently - supposedly - sticks to the berries. Somehow I find this hard to believe, even though the huge trees at the entrance to the winery impressed me. Indeed, the wine has something pepperminty, also something tobaccoy (water pipe tobacco), this cannot be denied.
t be denied. Now, at home, when I drink the wine for the second time (now full glasses), the mint recedes somewhat into the background, it is no longer as noticeable or nose- and palate-pleasing as it was at the winery, amidst the eucalyptus trees. Was it all just my imagination, did the landscape and the smells of nature (including eucalyptus) seduce me? Deceived? Is the wine not so South African, so typical of a vineyard surrounded by huge eucalyptus trees? What and how much can we delude ourselves or imagine with a good glass of wine? I leave the question open. The wine has - however much - minty notes, and above all it is - also here at home - very good. One of the best Cabernet Sauvignon after all.