DeMorgenzon DMZ Stellenbosch Syrah 2018

The 2018 DeMorgenzon DMZ Stellenbosch Syrah sports a deep purple color and offers an enticing bouquet of red and black fruits mingled with hints of lavender, exotic spices, and wood smoke. In the mouth, the wine’s floral and fruit tones happily re-emerge, blending with sizzling bacon flavors and deft touches of cinnamon and pepper, to the delight of the palate. Ripe, balanced tannins and a touch of vanilla from ageing in barrel add to the wine’s easy and enjoyable finish. For optimal enjoyment we suggest affording the 2018 DeMorgenzon DMZ Stellenbosch Syrah 10-15 minutes of aeration before serving at cool room temperature (58°-62° F). Anticipated maturity: 2021-2025. Enjoy!

The round, generous 2018 DeMorgenzon DMZ Stellenbosch Syrah provides excellent companionship to all kinds of game, meat, and hearty vegetable dishes. Skewered lamb and vegetable kebobs grilled over hot coals with wild herbs offer tasty accompaniments. A spicy brisket and fried onion slider makes another fine accompaniment. Slow cooked baby back ribs, Carolina barbeque, and the best burgers offer excellent pairings, too. For an explosive combination, consider a juicy beef or buffalo burger with roasted poblano pepper, pickled red onion, pepper jack cheese and jalapeño aioli. Southern Italian specialties such as Pasta Con Rapini (cavatappi, broccoli rabe, crumbled spicy sausage, and Sicilian olives with plenty of roasted garlic and extra virgin olive oil) provide other tasty treats with DeMorgenzon’s 2018 DMZ Stellenbosch Syrah. Zucchini Parmigiana served with spicy tomato sauce pairs nicely, too. Mangia!

It has been said that all wine estates on South Africa’s Western Cape are beautiful and possess a unique terroir, which would be difficult indeed to refute. After one visit to Stellenbosch and the Cape’s surrounding Winelands, the case would be closed. With that said, DeMorgenzon, meaning the morning sun in Dutch, has a further claim to fame. It sits high above the Stellenboschkloof Valley and is the first part of the valley to see the morning sun. DeMorgenzon enjoys commanding views of Cape town, Table Mountain, and the deep rolling blue of the South Atlantic Ocean. It is also in sight of nearby Kanonkop from where a cannon was once fired to alert the settlers in the region that a ship had put into Table Mountain. Since the times even before the early Dutch settlers, what is now called DeMorgenzon has always been a special place.

Founded in 1699, the DeMorgenzon estate is now in the trust of Wendy and Hylton Appelbaum, a dynamic South African couple committed to bettering the lives of all South Africans through educational trusts and a strong commitment to biodiversity and an ecologically sensitive environment at DeMorgenzon. Their 224-acre garden, of which 135 acres are under vine, serves as a model for wineries around the world. From DeMorgenzon’s vineyards flow award-winning, world-class Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah, and multiple red and white blends from a host of the world’s finest grape varieties. We invite you to begin your exploration of DeMorgenzon’s garden with this month’s feature, the 2020 DeMorgenzon DMZ Chardonnay.

South Africa has had a thriving wine industry since the 17th century, but only now is the rest of the world taking notice. Quality and innovation push the envelope, and values abound. And, nowhere in South Africa is their more to delight wine lovers than in the much heralded Winelands of Stellenbosch.

Located on the Western Cape less than an hour north of Cape Town, the picture post card town of Stellenbosch and the surrounding mountains form a dramatic backdrop for what has justly been heralded as the most beautiful wine country in the world. Although some may try to refute that claim and promote the various picturesque merits of other world renowned wine regions, what is not in question is the integral role Stellenbosch has played for more than three centuries in the formation of South African wine. Not only is Stellenbosch South Africa’s oldest and most important wine producing region, it is the finest region for red and white wines on the African continent and the source of many of the world’s greatest wine values. Stellenbosch is South Africa’s Napa, Sonoma, and Santa Barbara counties and much more. Stellenbosch contains a myriad of microclimates, which allow for the cultivation of a wide array of grape varieties. Consequently, Stellenbosch is responsible for high quality red and white wines from a host of varietals, including world-class Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Syrah, and Cabernet Sauvignon as well as Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Viognier, and of course South Africa’s unique varietal, Pinotage, a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault. From wineries in Stellenbosch old and new flow an enormous variety of wines that are world class and wholly unique in character. It is time to discover the unique, incredibly flavorful wines of Stellenbosch – South Africa’s crown jewel and the world’s most beautiful wine land.