94pts Vinous
Drinking Window 2025 - 2040
The 2021 Cabernet Franc Family comes from vines slightly higher up the incline from the Dolomite on shallower, more quartz soils that produce tighter bunches, basket-pressed and aged for 18 months in 25% new oak. It has a floral bouquet with wilted iris flowers, black plum, melted tar and rosemary aromas. Complex. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannins and a crisp bead of acidity, structured with graphite and white pepper on its grippy, off-dry finish. A "cool," almost aloof Cabernet Franc that will age with panache.
- By Neal Martin on August 2023

“The 2022 vintage was a game of two halves,” Gordon Bruwer Slabbert told me, Bruwer Raats himself over in the United States at the time, where his wines were making considerable inroads. “The season was exceptional for the whites, with cool nights during the build-up to harvest when there was just a little rain. The whites have a sense of energy. The reds were a little more challenging in 2022. We use some grapes outside Polkadraai for B Vintners. It’s nice to explore other regions. The further we explored, the more we had to have an identity, and I realized we didn’t need to try and emulate those regions and could make something unique. So we are using grapes such as Pinotage and Semillon, distinctive to South Africa.” Gavin and Bruwer Raats have done much to alter the Stellenbosch landscape as well as a re-evaluation of the role of Cabernet Franc that, until the last decade, played second fiddle to Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2021 and 2022s are studded with some riveting wines that include an entrancing 2021 Raats Family Cabernet Franc and spellbinding 2022 Raats Eden High Density Single Vineyard Chenin Blanc. These offer amazing value for money, the superb Jasper Red Blend retailing for between $20 to $25 in the United States. You couldn’t look at a Burgundy bottle for that. The Bruwer Vintners Vine Exploration, previously known just as “B Vintners” is more left-field and focused on low intervention, site-specific cuvées well worth investigating, especially their Chenin/Semillon “Haarlem to Hope” blend. - By Neal Martin on August 2023

• Region: Coastal Region
• District: Stellenbosch
• Ward: Polkadraai Hills
• Vineyard: Bluegum Grove and Skoonheid vineyards
• Soils: Decomposed dolomite granite sandy-loam, over granitic clay-loam and silt-loam, from 20- to 27-year-old vines
• Winemaking: Hand-harvested fruit is mostly destemmed and crushed (about 15% is left whole cluster). The fruit will undergo a cold soak for about 5 days in advance of alcoholic fermentation. The fermentation is in stainless steel with selected yeast at a target temperature of about 28C, and the total time on skins is about 10 days with gentle punchdowns once per day.
• Following a gentle pressing, the free run wine and press wine are blended together, and aged in 300 and 500L French oak barrels, 25% new for about 18 months.