Lynx wines in Franschhoek

Lynx wines is a new small winery in Franschhoek. We visited the winery on our tour in the wine country and it turned out to be a truly great experience.

The first wines were produced in 2003, mostly reds as the first white, a Viognier, has just been released.

Dieter Sellmeyer, previous engineer, treats his wine like small babies. He uses open concrete fermenters and spends lots of time during the fermentation process. He manually punches the skins back down to minimise pump-overs and allows 25 days of skin contact thanks to cold soak of 7 days, fermentation 7 days and maceration 7 to 10 days. All the red wine is then oaked in new french oak (1 to 3 years old) for 12 months before being bottled.

Dieter was a very friendly guy , he showed us around and lead us through the tasting of his wines. I was most impressed by the purity and elegant style of his wines which meant that I had to order three cases!

Lynx wines Franschhoek South Africa wine winery

At Lynx, they make the following wines and if you want to visit, an appointment is required I believe;

Cabernet Sauvignon (leather, dark fruit, delicate)

Shiraz (spicy, dark clean fruit, big vanilla taste)

Xanache (Bordeaux blend with cherry smell))

Merlot (not tried)

Viognier (fantastic and fermented for 6 months!)

Rosado (very clean strawberry rose wine)

Sweet Lynx ( sweet red from grapes forgotten on vine)

We will come back with more details about some of the wines. Below his own web page. Again we must thanks Lynx for a lovely experience!

Lynx Wines - understated sophistication

Comments

Leoville Lascases 1988

Last week was a special week for me as I received my last pay check from my previous employer. An event that required some sort of celebration with some good friends. Of the many bottles opened during that evening was a Leoville Lascases 1988. This Bordeaux wine from St. Julien is second Grand cru classee but it has the quality of a first growth. This chateau was also the wine that made me change from beer to wine as I had the pleasure of tasting a Leoville Lascases 1945 back in 88. The 1945 just knocked me off my guard and I remember thinking what a fantastic wine it was and what an experience to drink this wine from the year when world war 2 ended. I was in shock and I then just decided to enter into the world of wine. I have always had a soft spot for this chateau ever since. And to my pleasure it has been performing well at much more reasonable prices than the much more expensive first growths in the 1855 classification. Nowadays a bottle of this wine costs around ...

Condrieu 2014 by Cuilleron

In the steep hills north in the Rhone valley there is a small appelation which is called Condrieu. Here the rare grape of Viognier is grown. A grape not well known to many people but which gives a fantastic wine when grown here. It is a full bodied white with a very pronounced and overwhelming smell of flower, peach, apricot, tropical fruit etc. The taste is dominated by ripe fruit, medium acidity and a long finish. Very good to outstanding quality. This is not a white for the fainthearted as the style is rather opulent. But with 2 year old Comte it is the perfect match. Cuilleron (manager) has many different styles. The wine is pricy and rare to get hold of. Condrieu 2014 "La Petite Cote" Yves Cuilleron ca 30€ or 400 nok

Chianti Riserva 2016

Castello de Farnatello has a basic Chianti and a Riserva on the market. Both of them are good value for money. We tried the Riserva the other day, in two different glasses; Riedel Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. The Syrah glass is more closed at the top (to the right). The colour of the wine is medium red and the nose discrete smell of cherries, leather and nuts. Attractive acidity with a firm well balanced taste. This is perfect with lamb for ex. 5% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Merlot has been added to the wine as well and that gives it more body than the pure Sangiovese. And which glass works best? The Syrah glass enhances the smell much more than the CS glass in which the wine seems much more closed. Chianti Riserva 2016, Castello de Farnatello Ca 230 kr or 13euro

Life is too short to drink bad wine

Search This Blog