Tesseron Estate, Pym Rae, 2022
Tesseron Estate, Pym Rae, 2022
- 75cl
- 14%
- Red Still
- Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot
- Organic
- Biodynamic
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Drinking window: 2026 - 2038
Pym Rae is Tesseron Estate's flagship red, a Bordeaux-blend from their home vineyards in the Polkadraai Hills of Stellenbosch. The estate is a collaboration between the Tesseron family — the same dynasty behind Pontet-Canet in Pauillac — and South African viticulture, which tells you something about the ambition baked into every bottle. The 2022 vintage was a warm, even-ripening year that gave the fruit its dark, concentrated core without sacrificing the freshness that sets this wine apart from heavier Cape reds.
Cabernet Sauvignon leads the blend, and it shows: there's real structure here, with the kind of polished tannins that suggest careful extraction and good oak management. Yet it's the wild, aromatic lift — something distinctly South African, that fynbos note that no amount of Bordeaux influence can quite iron out — that makes Pym Rae worth paying attention to. Drink it from now until around 2038, though a couple more years in the rack won't hurt.
What the critics say:
"A juicy and fresh wine for the vintage with currant, crushed stone, dried flowers and bark character. It’s medium-bodied and very smooth. pH is only 3.4 yet it is ripe. The al dente fruit gives no impression of the intense heat of the vintage. Light bitter lemon on the finish. 50% aged in concrete vats. A blend of 80% cabernet sauvignon, 15% cabernet franc and 5% merlot. From biodynamically grown grapes with Demeter certification. So delicious now but it will improve with age. A lovely surprise for the vintage. Drink or hold."
The Polkadraai Hills sit on the cooler, south-facing slopes of Stellenbosch, where afternoon Atlantic breezes off False Bay provide natural temperature moderation and help retain acidity in the fruit. Soils are predominantly decomposed granite over clay subsoil, which drains well, stresses the vines just enough, and gives the wines that mineral backbone you notice on the finish. The elevation, modest but meaningful in this context, slows ripening and builds complexity that warmer valley-floor sites in the region can struggle to match.
Stellenbosch is South Africa's most celebrated red wine region, centred on the historic university town and spreading across a patchwork of valleys and hillside wards. The Wine of Origin system divides it into smaller wards — Polkadraai Hills among them — that increasingly carry their own identities, particularly for Cabernet-based reds and Chenin Blanc. Compared to Franschhoek or Paarl, Stellenbosch tends toward more structured, age-worthy reds; compared to Swartland, it's more classical in style and more European in orientation.
The 2022 vintage in Stellenbosch arrived with the kind of unpredictability that keeps winemakers on their toes. A wet winter provided excellent soil moisture reserves, but spring brought variable conditions that extended flowering and set up uneven ripening later on. The defining challenge came during harvest when persistent rain interrupted picking schedules, forcing producers to be ruthlessly selective about when and what they brought into the cellar.
What emerged is a vintage of surprising freshness and precision, particularly from those who waited out the weather. The Cabernet Sauvignon shows lovely balance rather than the power-first approach of recent hot years, with genuine structure beneath the fruit. Chenin Blanc absolutely shone, developing beautiful texture while keeping its natural acidity intact. We're finding these wines drink beautifully now, offering immediate pleasure while having the backbone to develop gracefully over the next five to eight years.
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Tesseron Estate
