Named for the old, weathered vilafontes soils on which the vines grow, the original vision behind Vilafonté was to create a single wine that could stand with the best Bordeaux blends in the world. The team quickly identified not one but two distinct styles emerging from the vineyard, however, and thus Series C and Series M were born. Both wines are ripe-fruited and generously oaked – their gloss and glamour a nod to the Napa roots of Freese and Long – but their varietal make-up lends them each a very different structure and texture.

Series C is built on Cabernet Sauvignon, blended with Merlot, Malbec and Cabernet Franc. After a flight of eight vintages of Series M, Series C’s Cabernet core is strikingly apparent, with an acid and tannin profile that immediately brings a sense of drive. By contrast, Series M is led by Merlot and Malbec with Cabernet Sauvignon and often Cabernet Franc in support. In two of the vintages I tasted, Malbec was the majority component but it is usually Merlot. Notably softer and suppler than Series C, it sometimes feels to me like Series M needs more backbone but it offers a sensuous, decadent style that has many admirers and ages well. With its combination of Merlot and Malbec, head winemaker Chris de Vries describes Series M as ‘no longer a Bordeaux blend but a proudly South-African blend.’

This double-header vertical tasting of Vilafonté’s Series C and Series M spans 2005 to 2022. De Vries, whose tenure at Vilafonté began on a permanent basis in 2016, interned at Vilafonté in 2014 and then worked at Opus One before returning home to take on the mantle of head winemaker. He feels that 2019 was a ‘turning-point vintage’ for him, with greater precision in both vineyard and winery delivering more precision in the final wines. Three of my four highest scoring Series Cs (2019, 2021 and 2022) were 2019 or later, as were the two highest scoring Series Ms (2020 and 2022). Series C is the most expensive of the pair (only a handful of South African wines have a higher price than Series C) and was consistently the more complex, accomplished and ageworthy, with the 2021 my wine of the tasting. It was the most chiselled and linear expression within the context of Vilafonté’s sumptuous stylistic mould, and I enjoyed its focus immensely.

In part, the character of the 2021 reflects the cooler vintage –  a ‘sweetheart vintage’ – but it also demonstrates De Vries’ preoccupation with ‘the energy of the wine and how it holds your attention on the palate’; he wants to balance the inherent power and ripeness of the site with restraint and tension, and he achieves this in the poise of the 2021. De Vries attributes this balance to improvements in vineyard management – and the strong relationship between himself and head winegrower Edward Pietersen (who has run the estate and its 18 hectares of vines since 2006) – as well as their approach to oak; they have moved to a lighter toast and a smaller collective of coopers to ensure greater quality control.

Vilafonté’s 21st vintage was recently released and although the 2023s were not tasted in this vertical, it is a fitting moment to reflect on 21 years of Series C and Series M and what the future may hold. The pursuit of a single wine that defines this vineyard continues, with an obsessive attention to detail, and I understood from De Vries that they are getting ever closer to that founding goal. He is clear, however, that in order to move to one Vilafonté grand vin, the estate must ‘create something with more profundity,’ something which can stand alone, and is ‘tangibly and obviously better’ than both Series C and Series M – an ambitious undertaking, no doubt, and not without risk commercially. If this vineyard does indeed have the potential to best articulate itself in one expression, I know that Ratcliffe and the team he has assembled at Vilafonté will find it.