Kara-Tara Pinot Noir Reserve 2020

Rüdger van Wyk is currently the winemaker at Stark-Condé who won the Diners Club Young Winemaker of the Year in 2018 and he was part of the protégé programme of the Cape Winemakers Guild. He produces the Kara-Tara wines under his own label with a focus on Burgundian varieties in the cool climate of the Overberg, as a joint venture with José Conde. Although the Kara-Tara Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines are well-known, very few people know about the Reserve Pinot Noir as only 741 were produced (for the 2020 vintage).

This wine has a medium dark red to garnet colour, which – in the absence of light red hues – tells you that this is not your average young Pinot Noir. On the nose, it offers some red fruit, green herbs and a hint of sour cherries. If I had to do this wine in a blind tasting, I would be doubting the Pinot Noir grape variety on the nose. It is only when you taste this wine, that one feels more convinced that it is a Pinot Noir. It is a very unique and complex Pinot Noir, which is very different from other counterparts that I have tasted before.

It has a soft entry with a firm acidity, presenting some red fruits such as fresh strawberries, canned cherries, forest floor and Portabello mushrooms. It is a complex wine with a bold texture, yet with a smooth mouthfeel that can be ascribed to the 11 months that this wine spent in French oak barrels. This is the type of Pinot Noir that can be compared with some Burgundian counterparts and is the ideal wine for a piece of seared tuna or sticky pork steaks.

The expressiveness of this wine can be ascribed to the dryland farming practices. Only 741 bottles were produced from selected barrels. The wine tasted for this review was 617/741. Well done to Rüdger van Wyk on such a great wine! I highly recommend that anyone who appreciates a good Pinot Noir tries this wine. The name Kara-Tara (Khoisan for “deep dark shadows”) is an appropriate name for this wine.

Producer: Kara-Tara

Variety: Pinot Noir 100%

Vintage: 2020

Origin: Overberg, Western Cape, South Africa

Winemaker: Rüdger van Wyk

Closure: Cork

Alcohol: 13.5%

RS: 1.0g/l

Average price: R600

Rating: 95/100