We have long believed Cape Agulhas has the potential to produce some of the highest quality Syrah in the world. Still, beliefs like this take a backseat each vintage when we set our goals.
The focus for us is never to make a wine that is better than any other producer or region. Rather, our single goal, year after year, is to produce a wine better than we produced in the previous vintage.
Our changes and improvements each year are always small. But it is the sum of these micro corrections over years and years that have allowed for tremendous understanding of our Syrah vineyards, fruit, and ultimately the wines we are producing.
If one goes back and looks at our single vineyard Syrah’s, Estate Syrah, or our Belladonna SMV you’ll notice consistent Bronze/Silver ratings 15 years ago. Over the last 8 years they have become consistently Silver/Gold. And in the last 5 years these wines are receiving Gold, Double Gold, and low 90’s across all of your most popular contests and critics.
A point best illustrated with the first Platter 5 Star Syrah (the 2018 Conebush Syrah) and most recently with the 2019 Belladonna SMV Blend taking the win at the 2022 Shiraz Challenge as the best Shiraz-based Blend in SA.
Well-known wine writer Michael Fridjhon summed up this value in consistency beautifully in a recent piece on The Trophy Wine Show:
Lomond’s Belladonna Rhone-style blends saw both the 2018 and 2019 in a dead heat on 92 (mid-silver). That kind of consistency in performance suggests it’s a cellar worth tracking over the longer term.
MICHAEL FRIDJHON
For people who like to believe that wine shows produce their results on little more than the spin of a roulette wheel, this level of consistency tells another story. But for wine drinkers who seek reliability, and the confidence of knowing that fine winemaking is not a fluke, the message here is inescapable.
We’ve never set out to make the best Syrah in the world. Year after year, we just focus on making a Syrah better than we did the vintage prior. Nearly 20 years later, this strategy is seeing some truly stunning wines coming out of the cellar.
