En primeur: Stellenbosch 2025

Named for Bruwer Raats’s father, the late Jasper Senior, this is always a gorgeous, generous cabernet-franc dominant Bordeaux blend, in keeping with Bruwer’s passion for, and expertise with, cab franc. A dark, captivating perfume of blueberry, mulberry and wild herbs and graphite leads to a palate marked by energy and vivid freshness. While this has a frame of cabernet franc (over 40%) providing linear tannins and a gravelly minerality, this is married with the richness and plush texture of malbec giving it a wonderful mid-palate generosity and full body, with the balance of the blend cabernet sauvignon and merlot. As with all the wines in this selection, the 2025 Jasper shows seamless balance; starting with sweet fruit, it ends with a dry, chalky character. Drink from 2028 to 2040. 14%

MR de Compostella (‘The Compilation of Stars’) is a joint venture between two trailblazing South African winemakers, and dear friends, Mzokhona Mvemve and Bruwer Raats (‘MR’ indicating ‘Mvemve Raats’). Their vision, back in the early 2000s, was to create a world-class wine every vintage, a wine that would become a Cape icon. 2004 was the inaugural vintage, and a mere two decades later Mzokhona and Bruwer have undeniably achieved this vision, with their superb Bordeaux blend now regarded as one of South Africa’s most eminent wines. Their unwavering focus on quality means that if the vintage does not deliver, they declassify the entire production, and in both 2010 and 2019 they did not produce an MR de Compostella. The blend comprises all five Bordeaux grape varieties and, in keeping with Bruwer’s cabernet franc expertise, is often cab franc led (though this is determined by what the specific vintage yields). In 2025, the composition is 31% cabernet franc, 24% malbec, 18% cabernet sauvignon, 15% merlot and 12% petit verdot and Bruwer notes that in great years – like 2025 – the proportions of the varieties are always quite close together like this, and all over 10%. With intense, super-charged aromatics of spicy blackcurrant, blackberry, pencil-shavings and dried rosemary, the 2025 MR has an incredible sense of direction and intention, with long, linear, chiselled tannins and a crushed-rock minerality. This is powerful and rich, but strikes such balance with a bright, juicy, almost mouthwatering acidity. Generously oaked (their most exceptional cabernet and petit verdot components go into 100% new French oak for the first year), the clove and cedar notes enhance and lift the black and blue fruit, and the tannins glide across the palate with a surprising suppleness. Yet this suppleness disguises what is a ‘titanium structure.’ Bruwer says it reminds him of their 2009 MR, in terms of the richness/tension duality, a thread in many wines in this selection. We are delighted to offer this wine to members for the first time. Drink from 2032 to 2050. 14.5%