In the 1960’s in South Africa, it was legally acceptable to label a wine “Cabernet Sauvignon”, despite that wine only containing 35% of that particular grape. Most often the remainder of those Cabs from the 60’s comprised of Cinsault. Quite shocking when you think of it. At that time a fellow by the name of George Spies worked as an assistant winemaker for a giant cooperative called Stellenbosch Farmers Winery. On the side, George made 3 vintages (63, 66 & 68) of GS Cabernet, and decided to make those wines 100% Cabernet Sauvignon – which he then proudly displayed on the label. This shone a media spotlight on his work, and resulted in considerable embarrassment for both the industry and of course, his employer. Threatened with termination, George was forced to abandon this project, having only bottled 3 vintages of this wine.

George Spies died in the early 80’s and many of these bottles found their way into the personal cellar of his good friend Walter Finlayson, himself a celebrated winemaker from Stellenbosch. Walter was twice named Winemaker of the Year in South Africa, both times for Cabernets. David Finlayson (Walter’s son) grew up in a household surrounded by great wine and on numerous occasions, would sit in on tastings of first growth Bordeaux during which South Africa’s top Cabs were also on display. The prowess of the GS Cabs from 1966 and 1968 is well known in the international trade and has in fact been written about by Jancis Robinson and James Molesworth – in glowing terms. These wines remain, unquestionably, South Africa’s greatest reds ever made and it is a shame that the work of George Spies was not allowed to continue back then.

In the early 2000’s David Finlayson, after being trained at Chateau Margaux and after becoming an accomplished winemaker himself, struck a deal with Ronel Spies (daughter of the late George Spies) to make a tribute Cab from a very special, older vineyard in Stellenbosch, in honor of her late father, and call it ‘GS’ once more. 2006 was this reincarnated wine’s inaugural vintage, and then recently, in 2022 in Leon, France at the annual ‘Concours du Cabernet’ event (hosted by the French Sommeliers Society) the 2019 vintage of David Finlayson ‘GS’ Cabernet Sauvignon was crowned “World’s Best Cabernet”. The wine was snapped up instantly. We bought heavy on the 2020 vintage, after tasting it from barrel in late 2021. We found the wine fleshier and more broad-shouldered than the 2019 – frankly, a style that we believe will resonate better with our US customers. I’d like to recommend that you give this a try – and feel confident that it will reward cellaring for up to 20 years. Only 120 cases of 6 made it into the US. [We just showed the 2008 at a special dinner in Ft Worth, TX and people were blown away at how rich and how primary the flavor spectrum still was] A bargain at $49.99