Tasting Notes
Showing wonderfully concentrated juicy Syrah flavours. It's a really lovely drink. I had a glass on night one and it was lovely, and then by night two it had opened up and was really fantastic! Good wines do need time, generally, to show at their best, and I would say it needs a couple of hours of being opened or even decanted if drinking now, but this demonstrates that this vintage of Chocolate Block has complexity that isn't fully revealed in its youth and that it will grow and become better and still be very good in four to five years. As ever, this is a very fine buy, as you're getting a grown-up wine for a modest price, which offers so much pleasure. I would think by Christmas it will be perfect. As ever, what makes Chocolate Block so good is the drinkability and quality combined. And then there's the price. You just can't argue about the price.
More Info
Really, anything coming out of the Boekenhoutskloof stable is seriously good these days. Marc Kent, founder of Boekenhoutskloof and Porseleinberg, is a perfectionist, and he works with Callie Louw who grows the grapes, and Gottried Mocke who makes the wine, and have both been awarded 'South African Winemaker of the Year' in recent years; Callie for Porseleinberg, which has just scored 100 points (Tim Atkin MW, The South Africa Special Report 2025), and from where many of the grapes for Chocolate Block come; and Gottfried for his work at Boekenhoutskloof and Chocolate Block (which is made at the Boekenhoutskloof cellar) both of which he has taken to a new level.