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By South African Wines
Fairview's Paarl blend uses the four grapes of a southern Rhône red in a different order. This is where it will taste familiar to a European red drinker, and where Shiraz and Cape heat change it.
Goats Do Roam Red is the Cape wine closest in grape terms to a southern Rhône red. If your usual weeknight bottle is a Côtes du Rhône, it is the obvious place to start. Goats Do Roam Red from Fairview uses the same four varieties you will find on the back label of many southern French blends: Shiraz, Mourvedre, Grenache and Cinsault. Shiraz is the name South Africa uses for Syrah.
The differences come from the proportions and from the place the grapes grow. Each changes what you taste, so it helps to know them before you swap one bottle for the other.
The blend is 73% Shiraz, 12% Mourvedre, 11% Grenache and 4% Cinsault. A typical southern Rhône red is built the other way round, with Grenache as the base and Syrah and Mourvèdre added for colour and backbone. Leading with Shiraz moves the wine toward pepper and darker spice, and gives it more grip than a Grenache-led blend usually has.
The smaller partners each add something specific. Mourvedre adds structure, the firm frame you feel on your gums after a mouthful. Grenache brings perfume to the nose, and the small share of Cinsault adds lift so the finish stays fresh.
For someone used to Grenache-heavy blends, the soft, sweet-fruited roundness you know sits further back in this wine. The savoury, peppery side comes forward, and the tannin is firmer from the first sip.
Paarl sits inland from Stellenbosch and runs hotter and drier, with Mediterranean summers that regularly go past thirty-five degrees. In climate terms, a southern French drinker is on familiar ground. The ripeness shows in the bottle, which carries 14% alcohol and feels full in the mouth.
The grapes are grown on Paarl's granite slopes and on other Coastal Region sites with similar soils. Weathered granite is low in nutrients and drains quickly, so vines send their roots deep to find water and yields stay modest. The berries come in small, which means more skin for the amount of juice, and the skin is where flavour and tannin come from. That gives concentrated fruit and firm, chewy tannins.
The town takes its name from the granite domes above the valley, which glint like pearls after rain. The area is sometimes called the Red Route, and its reds lean toward the Rhône by nature, which is why a blend like this suits it.
Fairview ferments each variety separately, using Rhône yeast strains that encourage savoury, spicy flavours. Anyone who drinks southern French reds will recognise that profile, especially the peppery edge that runs through the middle of the wine.
Ageing happens in a mix of tanks and older barrels. Older oak gives little vanilla or toast of its own, so the wood registers as a touch of background spice and the fruit stays in front. That will feel close to the many southern Rhône reds raised in old wood or tank.
The gap is in weight and warmth. Cape sun gives riper, more generous fruit, and at 14% you notice the body. A drinker who prefers the lighter, more rustic end of Côtes du Rhône will find this rounder and fuller, while one who reaches for the richer southern villages wines will feel at home straight away.
The wine is at its most generous on release and for a few years afterwards, while the fruit is full and the pepper still sharp, and it was made with that window in mind. It will hold a little longer in good storage, but time in the rack brings no improvement, so keep your cellar space for something else.
Use it at the table where you would use a southern French red. A slow-cooked beef stew gives the firm tannins something to grip, especially one with swede and parsnips in the pot alongside the carrots. Grilled lamb chops with rosemary sit well beside the Shiraz pepper, and the 12% Mourvedre gives the wine enough structure to stand up to the char on the fat.
The 2021 Goats Do Roam Red makes a fair swap for a Grenache-led southern French blend, provided you expect more pepper and a firmer grip. Pour it alongside the beef stew on the evening you cook it, and finish the bottle while the Shiraz spice is still bright.