The wine of the month

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Nederburg, Noble Late Harvest, 2024

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100 NJP

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October 2026: Nederburg, Noble Late Harvest, 2024 (12 EUR/13 USD in Sweden; 375 ml) white sweet wine, Western Cape, South Africa, 100 NJP (25-10-2026 by Dr Nenad Jelisic)

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Nederburg Noble Late Harvest 2024 is an absolutely brilliant sweet wine that achieves something that over 99% of sweet wines fail to do, and it is a perfect balance between the sweetness and the tartaric acid. Without it, it would be just a sweet wine, and not a fabulously sweet wine. The wine is one of the finest wines made from grapes affected by noble rot (Botrytis cinerea) that I have tried so far outside of Sauternes. I am genuinely surprised that South Africa can produce a so exceptionally high-quality wine by noble rot affected grapes, a wine that is better than most comparable examples from Sauternes in France. I am even more astonished that a such outstanding wine costs only 130 SEK. Both this vintage and the previous vintage, the vintage 2023, received 100 NJP points. This says a lot about Nederburg Noble Late Harvest-wine. The wine is nuanced, very sweet, complex, fresh and both very aromatic and very flavourful. In the aroma of the wine emerges clearly citrus fruits, raisins, dried apricots, pineapple, honey, sweet spices, apricot jam, saffron, orange peel, and orange marmalade. In the aroma of the wine emerges clearly citrus fruits, honey, orange marmalade, orange peel, sweet spices, pineapple, dried apricots, saffron and raisins. The balance between sweetness and acidity could not be better. The aftertaste is wonderful, both sweet and tangy, and remarkably long. Thanks to its perfect balance, Nederburg Noble Late Harvest 2024 can be aged for at least 8 years i.e., up to and including at least 2034.

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Nederburg Noble Late Harvest 2024 should be drunk at 8°C from, if possible, Orrefors Difference Sweet or Orrefors Elixir or Riedel Sommeliers Sauternes. The wine will pair exceptionally well with a fruit salad consisting of finely diced kiwi, nectarine, sweet green seedless grapes, passion fruit, mango, ripe yellow pear and a splash of freshly pressed apple juice or with fried in butter foie gras or duck liver with fried in butter bread (in both cases with very little butter, but the butter must be of the absolute highest quality) and apple jelly or blackberry jelly (which is the best combination with the wines) or with cherry cake or with cherry pie or with pancakes with sweet red berries or sweet black berries or with pancakes with walnut filling or with some flavourful cheese such as Castello Blue, Gorgonzola, Roquefort and Stilton. Or just enjoy of its immense complexity, richness of aroma and richness of flavour without any food at all.

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The grapes for this wine come from vineyards, which is located in Durbanville and Paarl. The vineyards are located at an altitude of 120 to 160 meters above sea level. The vines were planted there between 1984 and 1993. Nederburg Noble Late Harvest 2024 contains of four grapes: 48% Chenin Blanc, 30% Muscat de Frontignan, 18% Grasa de Cotnari and 4% Riesling. The grapes for Nederburg Noble Late Harvest are left hanging for a certain amount of time after they had become mature until noble rot (Botrytis cinerea) affects them. The attack of the noble rot causes the water in the grape to evaporate while the sweetness, acidity and flavours get a higher concentration. The grapes affected by the noble rot are harvested and selected by hand in the vineyards. After the harvest, the grapes are transported to the winery, where they are crushed and destemmed. Then their grape mass, which consists of crushed grapes, stems and grape juice, is macerated and fermented at 16°C for a period of three to six weeks, during which malolactic fermentation also takes place, in stainless steel tanks. After the fermentation, the must is gently pressed and both the free-run wine and the pressed wine are then blended together, and then the wine are aged for several months in the same stainless steel tanks that had been fermented on. Finally, the wine is bottled, without filtration and without fining, and aged for a few more months before it is released on the market.

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Note that without fog and high humidity, there would be no noble rot and Nederburg Noble Late Harvest, and it is at the beginning of the autumn when the climate is warm and dry and the temperature difference between the air and the South Atlantic is greatest, when noble rot develops.

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Nederburg's wines are imported to Sweden by Philipson Söderberg.

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Nederburg has international distributors over the almost whole world, see Nederburg’s website.