Why it matters
The producer
Napier Vineyards is an estate near Wellington, established in 1989 and named for Sir George Napier, Governor of the Cape of Good Hope from 1837 to 1843. It became part of Reh Kendermann in 2017. The useful thread through its wines is Leon Bester, the Elsenburg-trained winemaker whose first vintage here was 2000: Bordeaux grapes are not simply assembled into a red blend, but grown and selected with a clear division between everyday bottles and older-vine premium fruit.
Bester arrived for the 2000 vintage and began by changing the vineyard before asking more of the cellar. Irrigation, soil data and weather stations informed replanting, while vines that better matched their plots were kept in the system. By 2017, vines aged 28 to 35 years were reserved for Napier’s premium range. That decision gives Red Medallion a defined role: it is made from the estate’s Bordeaux-variety material and held back through an extended maturation sequence rather than released as a young, simple red.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Wellington is the address on both Red Medallion and MZ Cape Collection, and it frames their ripe, dark-fruited profile. MZ Cape Collection comes from vineyards at the foot of the Hawequa Mountains; its warm days and cool nights are described as helping fruit develop colour and flavour while retaining freshness. In the glass, that combination shows as blackcurrant and plum alongside a firm line of acidity rather than jammy sweetness.
Napier does not supply a soil-type shorthand for its wines, so the more useful site story is how it reads the ground. Under Bester, the estate introduced soil sampling, weather stations and irrigation, then replanted vines that did not suit the soil profile. The consequence is practical: Cabernet-based fruit can be directed from plots that fit it, instead of relying on one undifferentiated estate blend.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
The vineyard programme matters most at harvest, when sugar ripeness and phenolic ripeness do not always arrive together in Wellington. Bester has described working in the vineyard to bring them into line; for Cabernet grapes, that means pursuing ripe skins and tannins without waiting for excessive sugar. Red Medallion’s round texture and ripe tannin belong to that fruit decision as much as to its time in wood.
Its cellar sequence is unusually explicit. The five varieties are fermented and barrel-aged separately, blended after 12 months, then kept for another 12 months in barrel and a further 18 months in bottle. Separate élevage lets Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Merlot and Petit Verdot keep their individual fruit and tannin shape before the blend is settled into a softer, more integrated texture.
Wines to know
The range in view
Napier’s range is built in tiers rather than around one grape. The premium Napier line has included Red Medallion, a Bordeaux blend; St Catherine, a Chardonnay; and a single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. Lion Creek forms a second line, while the estate also makes classic varietal wines. That architecture separates a named, long-matured blend from simpler varietal and everyday bottles.
Red Medallion 2020 is the most fully documented red: 42.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 42.5% Cabernet Franc, with 5% each of Malbec, Merlot and Petit Verdot. The two Cabernets provide the frame, while the smaller components fill out fruit, body and tannin. MZ Cape Collection 2020 uses the same five Bordeaux varieties, led by Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, but presents them in a more immediately juicy, medium-bodied style with oak in the aroma and palate.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with Napier Red Medallion 2020. It is a Wellington Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Merlot and Petit Verdot, made as separate components before 12 months of blending, another year in barrel and 18 months in bottle. The result is deep red, with ripe plum, cedar, pencil lead, spicy fruit and soft, ripe tannin. It brings the estate’s older-vine premium selection, Cabernet structure and patient cellar work into one bottle.