Cape Mantella
TASTING NOTES: “The aromatics are nuanced and complex; dark black forest berry fruit, sweet paprika and toasted cinnamon overlay intense smoked charcuterie. Finer nuances of cocoa powder, umami and roasted lamb entwine with leather and tobacco undertones combining with sage and spearmint notes.
The palate is rich and powerful displaying plum, cranberry and ripe black forest berry fruits of boysenberry and blackcurrant overlaying cured charcuterie and roasted coffee bean. Oak tones of vanilla pod, roasted walnut and mocha interlace with toffee and molasses notes. The tannins are elegant and round with great volume.” (AbV 14.8%, pH 3.71, TA 5.70 g/L)
VARIETALS: Shiraz 55%, Cabernet 40%, Merlot 3%, Zinfandel 2%.
BARRELS: 16 months in French oak.
PAIRS WITH: Roasted spring lamb dressed with rosemary, with baked pumpkin. Spiced tofu and vegetable curry with buttery roti.
THAT REMINDS ME OF: Mantella! The golden frogs! The Malagasy poison frogs!
You may have heard of poison dart frogs. Colorful little frogs found in South American rainforests, whose colors actually advertise their deadliness to potential predators. This adaptation is known as aposematism.
In a fun bit of convergent evolution all the way on the other side of the world, there are similarly colorful poisonous frogs in the jungles of Madagascar. For quite some time, since they were first noted by European herpetologists in the 19th century, scientists would actually put them in the same family as poison dart frogs, Dendrobatidae. Given they are literally across the world from each other, though, this was pretty far-fetched, their similarities aside.
