Carel Nel’s family has a legacy of winemaking in Calitzdorp stretching back to the mid-1800’s, with Boplaas’ first export order of potstill brandy being delivered to London in 1880. After joining the CWG in 1988, he has had at least one wine on auction each year, with the Carel Nel CWG Cape Vintage Reserve 2010 being the 24th wine in a row.
Carel is not only a CWG member, but also a Cape Wine Master – a qualification earned in 1993. His advocacy of Portuguese varietals and the help of his fellow Calitzdorp producers has firmly established the areas reputation as the “Port Capital” of South Africa. Various sojourns to both the top Old World and New World wine producing countries and producers, as well as extensive travel in Portugal, has all aided in the development of his wines and those of Boplaas. Never one to conform to the norm, Carel has also pushed the viticultural boundaries with planting the first vines high up in the Outeniqua’s at Ruiterbosch and tirelessly scouring for the best terroir to source fruit from to craft exceptional wines.
The CWG Cape Vintage Reserve 2010 is crafted from a quartet of hand-harvested Portuguese varietals originating from old vines rooted deep in the Calitzdorp terroir; fermented in custom built lagares with intensive manual pigeage; fortified with pure wine spirit at the optimal moment to capture varietal integrity; aged a year in large old French barrels prior to blending and bottling unfined unfiltered. An inky black crimson wine radiating ripe hedgerow fruit, plum, all-spice, fynbos and orange rind undertones all encapsulated by impenetrable tannins and warming spirit grip will ensure many decades of enjoyment. This wine is demanding of careful cellaring and will reward one’s patience beyond 2050.
A total of 30 cases of the Carel Nel CWG Cape Vintage Reserve 2010 will be available for public auction at the Spier Conference Centre, outside Stellenbosch on the 6th October 2012 starting at 09h00. For the first time ever, the public can bid on all the CWG Auction wines via The Sale Room
website, affording anyone, anywhere the opportunity to purchase some of the rarest and finest Cape wines.