Flower Collection Cabernet/Merlot 2018

ageing : This vintage can be enjoyed up to 2022 but will reach its best drinking potential towards the middle of 2020.

The River Garden wines by Lourensford are an elegant range that exemplifies the breathtaking mountains, crystal-clear rivers and tranquil settings, capturing the sheer enjoyment of nature with understated class and finesse.

The preceding three years has been the driest in recorded history in the Southern African Wine producing regions. However, the hot, dry weather kept the vineyards largely disease and pest-free and while December and January were hot - hitting 35 °C at times. There were no intense heatwaves and the end of growing season grew cooler, leading to better colour and flavour. We experienced thunderstorms during harvest in February. Thunder and lightning are full of nitrogen, which gets deposited in the vines making them lush and green, in turn that helped with the overall state of our vines and ripening in a very difficult and dry season.

Due to our unique topography and high rainfall we had enough water for all the normal requirements of our vines during and after harvest. Due to dry season, the crop levels were a little bit less than normal, but overall quality is deemed very high as much of the loss in overall volume was due to smaller berries and bunches which, conversely, should lead to a greater concentration of flavour and colour in the 2018 wines.