It’s Alchemy – Wine review

Living in Cape Town, we are surrounded by wine farms in almost every direction. We have our favourite farms that we like to visit but we often feel guilty for not exploring new farms more. That being said are somewhere between 800 and 1000 estates in the Western Cape, so I don’t think we should feel too guilt ridden.

So as wine collectors, even though we have a few dozen bottles, we really only have the tiniest sampling of what’s around us.

The Alchemy collection (by Hartenberg) arrived and was packed away in the wine wrack, and although the labels looked well designed I wasn’t incredibly excited. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover is a phrase that all too often applies to wine  – you should never buy a pretty labeled bottle. Luckily, this is changing slowly as graphic design is becoming more important as estates battle for eye-time on the shelf.

As the weeks went by we started opening the bottles, and so far each one has been a happy surprise.

The Alchemy range is made up of:

Alchemy 2014 White blend: Chenin Blanc, Semillon, and Sauvignon Blanc

Alchemy 2013 Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon blend

Alchemy 2013 Bordeaux style blend

Alchemy 2013 Rhone style blend: Syrah, Mourvedre and Grenache blend

alchemy collection

 

My favourite so far is the Bordeaux style blend: Merlot (65%), Malbec (34%), Cab. Franc (1%). I’m not a big Merlot drinker, but I think with just over 1/3 Malbec, my arm got twisted for a 2nd glass.

Very possibly, even a 3rd…

I would like to have this in my collection again. I don’t think it won’t stay there for very long though.

I hope you try this out and let me know what you think – as always comments are welcomed and encouraged. Enjoy!