2020 Kanonkop Kadette Cabernet Sauvignon Stellenbosch

Kanonkop Wines has stood at the forefront of South African winemaking since patriarch Paul Sauer first cultivated the farm's lower Simonsberg slopes in the 1930s. The property dates to 1929, with estate-bottled wines first released under the Kanonkop label from the 1973 vintage.

Now in its fourth generation, the estate is owned by brothers Paul and Johann Krige and guided by winemaker Abrie Beeslaar, who has shaped Kanonkop's voice since 2002.

Widely considered the South African equivalent of a First Growth, Kanonkop has made Pinotage and Cabernet Sauvignon its specialties, with its classic Stellenbosch reds earning benchmark status across the globe.

Kadette was born in the mid-1980s, when soaring demand for the estate wines led to new plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinotage. Rather than rush young-vine fruit into the estate bottlings, Jannie Krige created a second label: a "cadet" to the senior Kanonkop, in keeping with the farm's cannon-hill name. Today Kadette draws on carefully sourced Stellenbosch fruit alongside Kanonkop's own, and every bunch goes through the same meticulous winery process as the Estate range.

2020 Kadette Cabernet Sauvignon was made from roughly a 65/35 split of purchased and home-grown Stellenbosch grapes. Platter's notes 75% new oak on this vintage, which lends cedar and vanilla polish to a fresh cassis core.

The result is a classic Stellenbosch Cabernet at a remarkable price with graceful tannins and nuanced oak, drinking beautifully now and through 2027.