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The Waterford Estate Jem, named after the owner of Waterford Estate Jeremy Ord (Jem for short) is the flagship wine of Waterford Estate in Stellenbosch and the first $100 bottle of wine to be sold outside of South Africa. It comes in a beautiful packaging of a linen box with information about the wine inside, as well as the original bottle number (only 2,800 cases were produced).
The Jem is a brilliant blend, consisting of eight grape varieties that each play a vital role in the complexity of this wine. Contrary to what one might expect, this highly complex wine is still a wine that drinks beautifully because it was made with perfection in mind. So, if complex wines are not for you or too overpowering, make this wine your exception.
2015 was a superb year for Stellenbosch, the South African home of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot (and subsequently Bordeaux-style red blends). The overall climate was great and the grapes for this wine benefitted well. Striving for perfection, Mark le Roux put together this unique blend and aged it for 19 months in 32% new 225 litre French oak barrels. The wines are then further aged in the bottle for about 7 years before it is released into the market.
This wine has an excellent perfumed nose of red fruit, black fruit, sweet oak spices and pencil shavings. It has a soft entry with velvety tannins that are full but vibrant. It delivers well on the palate from the nose, with some blackcurrant, red currant, black cherries, violets, cloves, white pepper, plums, forest floor and star anise. It has a chocolate-coated, fruity finish that lingers for long. As I mentioned earlier, these are all elegant and very well balanced – the complexity is not overpowering, instead one could almost say that it is as if the different flavours make turns to indulge your palate with every sip.
This wine could be decanted for about 30 minutes before it is served, but I would be careful of decanting it too much or swirling it too vigorously in the glass, as some of the more subtle notes might suffer to come forward. It can be cooled down slightly. Due to the perfect balance, structure and elegance of this wine, I would prefer to have a glass of this on its own (at least one glass before food, if pairing with food). If you want to pair this wine with food, you have an array of options because the different notes of the wine will pick up many other notes in various foods. It will thus work with beef roast, lamb chops, venison pie, chicken curry, duck breasts, a tomato-based pasta, cheeses and even dessert.
Yes, this wine is not cheap – let's be honest. However, once you've had one sip, you will happily forget about the price and feel that this wine is well worth the price. You can also imagine the amount of effort and craftmanship that goes into this blend, the beautiful packaging and the heavy bottle that comes with that. To top it all, this wine is both good to drink now or it can be aged in the cellar for up to 30 years. I recently presented this wine at the Decanter Wine Club and afterwards, everyone wanted to take a selfie with the bottle and the orders for this wine was by the case. What an excellent wine!
Producer: Waterford Estate
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon 45%, Shiraz 20%, Cabernet Franc, 14%, Merlot 6%, Petit Verdot 6%, Mourvèdre 4%, Sangiovese 3%, Barbera 2%
Vintage: 2015
Origin: Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa
Winemaker: Mark le Roux
Closure: Cork
Alcohol: 14.6%
RS: 2.8g/l
Average price: R2000
Rating: 98/100
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