Vertical flights into the wine matrix

Graham Howe tastes living history at vertical tastings of flagship South African wines going back to 1940 – and looks for the common thread in evolving wine styles.

I’ve spotted an interesting trend to vertical tastings of flagship wines at some of the Cape’s leading cellars lately. At annual media and trade launches, winemakers are seizing the opportunity to showcase older vintages of signature varieties and benchmark blends alongside new vintage releases. Vertical tastings of the same wine going back ten or even twenty vintages offer unique insights into the evolution of a distinct cellar house style, the DNA of terroir and the ageing potential of different varieties. And a vertical tasting is a big trump card in the maze of wine pr events.

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