The Veritas Vertex Award, named after wine industry legend Duimpie Bayly, crowns the overall winner at Veritas, the country’s longest running and most prestigious wine competition.
The Tokara Reserve Collection Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 was the sixth receiver of the Duimpie Bayly Vertex Award since its inception in 2017. It makes the score even for red and white wine winners, namely three each, that have won the highly sought-after hand-grafted glass trophy.
The creator of this ‘pinnacle product’, Tokara winemaker Stuart Botha, explains that the winery’s focus is on two of the great grape varieties in the world, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc. This means that if you love world-class wine, combined with fine food, award-winning olive oils and spectacular views, you need not look any further than this winery that was founded in the mid-nineties.
This exceptional Cabernet Sauvignon has its origin in Tokara’s premium vineyards on the slopes of the Simonsberg Mountain overlooking Stellenbosch. Only grapes from selected sections of the best vineyard blocks are used, with the average yield of 6 - 8 tons per hectare. The grapes were hand-picked at optimal ripeness between 8 March and 3 April 2019. The blend comprises90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Petit Verdot.
The grapes were gently de-stemmed, before passing across a sorting table and then being crushed directly into tanks for fermentation, using only gravity. A period of cold maceration follows for up to five days before the spontaneous onset of fermentation, using the natural yeast strains present on the grapes.