1997 Fleur du Cap

[winecollector]

Sorry Drew, I had trouble finding this post again to respond about the vintages. Even though South Africa has been making wines and ports for some 300 years, it's still a country where you kind of take a chance on what your going to get in the bottle. As far as most recent vintages, I found out that both the '95 & '97 vintages were supposed to be great for cabernet, and 96' was supposed to be terrible for it. I couldn't find out any vintage info specifically on merlot or pinotage. I think merlot is still fairly new to South Africa.

The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Wine by Robert Joseph gives some inside information as to how the wine industry in South Africa was affected by their polital problems during the later half of this past century. Good reading for you wine history buffs out there!