Winter is a time for red wine. While Stellenbosch is the heartland of the country’s icon reds, it is wine from the pioneering Simonsig Estate that shines among the brightest of these expressions.
Leading the way since its conception is the Simonsig Tiara. Tiara was the first of the farm’s premium range; among South Africa’s first Bordeaux blends; and, the wine that first launched Simonsig’s standing as a producer of top quality red wine.
“Tiara was a big step in building a serious Simonsig red wine reputation, because in the time of [family patriarch and industry pioneer] Frans Malan, the focus was mostly on the Kaapse Vonkel (South Africa’s category founding Cap Classique) and white wines,” says third-generation Simonsig winemaker Michael Malan about his grandfather.
“By 1990, I had all the ducks in a row to make the maiden vintage of Tiar
When it finally arrived, the Malans knew they had a winner and it’s evident in the name the wine was given. Frans Malan came up with it as they sought to find a word that would transmit its stature. It had to be regal, “a signal of royalty or representing the very best,” Johan says.
The name for what is traditionally an exquisite crown worn by a queen or princess fit the bill perfectly. Years later, with the creation of Simonsig’s award-winning single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, called The Garland, a magical thread would be woven. Both headdresses, one of diamonds, the other of flowers, were linked in the wines that bore their names by Cabernet Sauvignon – arguably the wine world’s apex variety.