Hartenberg Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
£23.00
£30.67 per litre · incl. 20% VAT
Only 1 bottle left
94Tim Atkin
93Tim Atkin
90Platter's Wine Guide
92Tastings.com
Stellenbosch Cabernet the way it should be: dark, structured, and built to age. Expect black cherry and blackcurrant lifted by fynbos and tobacco, with fine, dry tannins and a long savoury finish. A serious red from one of the Cape's most respected estates, brilliant now and even better with a few years in the cellar.
Not for sale to persons under 18. Adult signature required on delivery.
Our Verdict
We rate Hartenberg as one of the most consistently reliable Cabernet houses in Stellenbosch, and this is the bottle that earns it. What sets it apart at this price is the structure: most reds around the £23 mark are made to drink tonight, while this one has the fine tannins and savoury depth to genuinely improve for a decade or more. It picked up 94 points from Tim Atkin, and we understand why. We'd point it at the patient drinker, the one who likes a serious Cabernet with a slow-cooked dinner. Stock is limited at the moment, so don't sit on it too long.
Tasting Notes
This is Stellenbosch Cabernet with real presence. The nose leads with vivid black cherry and blackcurrant, then turns more intriguing as fynbos scrub and dried tobacco leaf creep in, a savoury edge that signals this isn't just about fruit. The palate is plush and generous, juicy dark berry flooding the mouth before fine-grained, dry tannins draw everything tight. They give the wine its grip and its ageing backbone. The finish is long, earthy and distinctly savoury, the kind that makes you reach for the glass again.
About This Wine
Here is a Cabernet that rewards anyone who looks past the supermarket shelf. Hartenberg has been quietly making some of Stellenbosch's most age-worthy reds for decades, and this is the wine that explains why people keep coming back to the estate. Pour it and you get vibrant black cherry and blackcurrant first, then something more intriguing underneath: that distinctive Cape note of fynbos, the wild mountain scrub, woven through with cedar and tobacco. The palate is plush and generous, all just-ripe dark fruit, before fine-grained, dry tannins pull everything into a long, savoury, earthy finish. Eighteen months in French oak, half of it new, adds structure and a subtle spice without ever burying the fruit. This is a wine with a clear sense of occasion. It drinks beautifully now, especially decanted for an hour, but it has the backbone to develop for many years in the cellar, so it suits both the Sunday roast and the bottle you tuck away for later. Try it with a slow-braised beef short rib, a rosemary-studded leg of lamb, or, for a meat-free table, a rich black mushroom stroganoff. It also makes a thoughtful gift for anyone who takes their reds seriously, or for a homesick South African missing the Cape. We deliver across the UK, straight to the door.
Food Pairing
This wants something rich and slow-cooked. A roast rib of beef with all the trimmings is the obvious Sunday choice, but the savoury, earthy streak also makes it superb with a wild mushroom stroganoff or a beef and ale pie. For cheese, reach for a mature Cheddar. The dry tannins cut cleanly through fat, so anything braised or roasted lets this wine shine.
- —Roast rib of beef with Yorkshire puddings
- —Wild mushroom stroganoff
- —Slow-braised beef and ale pie
- —Venison casserole with juniper
- —Mature Cheddar with quince paste
How to Serve
Decanting
Decant for a good hour, longer for younger bottles. The fine, dry tannins need air to soften and the fynbos and tobacco aromatics really unfold with time in the glass.
Behind the Wine
Stellenbosch gives Cabernet a long, warm ripening season tempered by breezes that drift in off the Atlantic, slowing the fruit and letting it build colour and structure without tipping into jamminess. Hartenberg leans hard into regenerative farming, nurturing soil health and water retention so the vines stay balanced even as the Western Cape grows hotter and drier. You taste that care in the glass: deep, just-ripe black fruit, freshness that holds the wine together, and the firm, fine-grained tannins that make it worth keeping.
Ageing Potential
Built to last. This drinks well on release, but the firm tannins and concentrated fruit mean it rewards patience, with a maturation potential of roughly 8 to 20 years from vintage. Expect the primary berry to mellow into leather, cedar and dried fruit as the tannins soften.
The Winemaking
This is patient winemaking. After fermentation the wine settles into French oak barrels for eighteen months, half of them new, the rest seasoned so the wood frames the fruit rather than smothering it. That measured oak regime is where the savoury, cedary edge comes from, and where those dry, fine-grained tannins gain their polish. Nothing is rushed. The result is a Cabernet built deliberately for the long haul, structured to reward eight to twenty years in the cellar yet generous enough to enjoy young.
About the Producer
Hartenberg
Hartenberg has been in the Mackenzie family's hands since 1986, and that continuity shows in everything they make. The real character of the place, though, comes from Carl Schultz, Cellar Master since 1994 and a working-with-nature man long before it was fashionable. He has spent decades turning Hartenberg into a proving ground for regenerative agriculture, treating the soil, the water and the people on the farm as one connected system rather than a list of inputs. It is a quietly principled estate, the kind that plans in decades, not seasons. Taste the Cabernet and you understand why their reputation for serious, age-worthy Stellenbosch reds has held for so long.