Le Riche Cabernet Sauvignon

A well-suited match for lamb, grilled beef, hearty stews, and aged hard cheeses. Pepper-crusted dishes, rosemary-infused roasts, and meat-based pastas, such as beef goulash or Toulouse sausages with mash, complement its structure and savory notes.

Grapes are sourced from multiple top Stellenbosch vineyard sites—cool, gravelly False Bay slopes and rich granitic soils near Stellenbosch—selected for fruit purity, structure, and consistent ripening.

Approximately 22 months in French oak barriques (225 L), of which around 18% is new oak. This barrel maturation contributes to complexity without overwhelming the wine’s fruit expression.

Fermentation occurs in open-top concrete or stainless steel tanks with gentle punch-downs. After primary fermentation, the wine undergoes malolactic conversion in barrel, helping soften tannins and integrate structure.

Le Riche Wines is situated on the slopes of the Helderberg Mountain in close proximity to the historic town of Stellenbosch. The winery was designed to replicate our previous winery in Jonkershoek which was built in 1911. With old style open top concrete fermentation tanks mixed with a modern minimum intervention wine making approach the winery provides a platform to create ultra premium red wines in a classic South African style. Production is 8000—6 cases a year with the Reserve range consisting of only about 1000 cases. The wines are rare but worth sourcing. Le Riche Wines was founded by Etienne le Riche in 1996 and is now run as a family concern. Coming from an illustrious career in the South African wine industry Etienne decided to create a winery where he could express the cultivar he had grown to love and respect Cabernet Sauvignon. The approach was simple to illustrate the nuances of Stellenbosch Cabernets as best possible. Preferring not to be inhibited by estate classification he chose to select grapes from the best possible terroirs Stellenbosch had to offer. The resulting wines have shown great elegance and class consistently proving to be of superb quality and maturation potential.