Prestigious Family Wineries
Live Virtual Auction, 23 July 2023
Prestigious family wineries | Thelema Mountain Vineyards, Raats Family Wines and Savage Wines
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About this Item
Thelema, the Greek word for ‘will’, was a charming dilapidated fruit farm until Gyles Webb came along and purchased the farm with the help of his wife’s family in 1983. Placed at the top of the Helshoogte Pass, Thelema is one of the highest and coolest estates in the area, its deep red soils make it ideal for premium quality wine grape production. At a time when the South African wine scene was focused on quantity rather than quality, Webb was a trailblazing pioneer on a mission to craft world-class wines. Construction began on the winery in 1987, and Thelema produced its first vintage in 1988. Winemaking since 2000 has been in the capable hands of Rudi Schultz, with Gyles's son Thomas involved in running the business.
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Critics Ratings
'Quite an individual wine, this 2018 Rabelais is beautifully characterful and expressive with vivid notes of sour black plum compote, saline black currant, kelp and oyster shell, unsmoked cigars and freshly cracked black pepper all tightly smothered beneath an aromatic iron curtain of graphite and cedar spice. The palate shows an impressively polished texture with sleek marble like tannins… firm but super tight knit and precise, a medium bodied harmonious weight of red and black berry fruits and an incredibly long, saline, rock salt finish. Plenty of attractive wet river pebble minerality combines with graphite, lead pencil and complexing brûléed wood spice nuances to offer all the ‘salt & pepper’ complexity that should evolve in bottle to one day make this a truly classy, complex Cape Bordeaux blend. Crack the odd bottle after 5+ years but keep the rest for at least 10+. A fabulous 2018 blend that speaks of the vintage.' - Greg Sherwood MW, 96/100
‘All-new French oak & selection of special vineyard parcels show in the fruit intensity, layers of spicing & uber-sleek structure. Sumptuous ’18, like ’16 has a great future.' – Platter's SA Wine Guide 2021, 5* (95/100)
‘The Merlot Reserve is a barrel selection from two vineyards on east-facing slopes, both of them planted with an Italian clone. Aged in 100% new wood, it's an ambitious, sumptuous red with big, bold flavours, notes of vanilla spice and chocolate and blackberry and bramble fruit. 2023-30’ – Tim Atkin MW, SA Special Report 2019, 94/100
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