Miles Mossop Max 2020 75cl

Tasting Note

With aromas of smoked meats, cherries and Christmas cake, the palate has lots of dark chocolate, blueberries and roasted spices. It goes wonderfully with beef stews, barbecued food and hard cheeses. 

Producer

Until May 2018, Miles Mossop’s day job was as winemaker at Tokara, a position he had held since the winery started-up in 2000. The agreement Miles had with GT Ferreira, the owner of Tokara, allowed him to vinify 10 tonnes of bought in grapes and put them under his own label each year. Now completely independent and now making wines in two different locations in Stellenbosch, Miles is starting to extend both production and the range he produces.

Miles Mossop Wines started out as a three-wine project, each being named after one of his children. This range then developed into a four-wine collection, the fourth being named after his wife, Samantha. 

This wine is the second of the collection, named after his son. It was a 6,000 bottle blend from the 2004 vintage, made up of Cabernet (56%), Petit Verdot (22%) from Bellevue in Stellenbosch, and Merlot (22%) from Zelma Long’s Vilafonté vineyard in Paarl. The wine spent a total of 20 months in 40% new French oak and won a Gold Medal at the well-respected Old Mutual Trophy Show.

The blend for the 2005 was 56% unirrigated Cabernet Sauvignon from Bellevue, 20% Petit Verdot from the same source and (since Vilafonté built their own production facility and Miles was no longer making their Merlot component at Tokara), the source was replaced by fruit from a friend’s farm in Banghoek valley, a relatively cool location off the Helshoogte Pass. This also means that since the source for the Merlot switched, the wine was also entitled to the Wine of Origin Stellenbosch appellation.

Subsequent vintages have all been drawn from the same vineyard sources, although the 2009 and 2010 vintages saw the introduction of a small portion of Stellenbosch Malbec to the blend.

_{Country: South Africa | Region: Stellenbosch | Alcohol: TBC | Grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot}