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Bruce Jack Wine Tasting - 27th August '24

Writer's picture: vatswineclubvatswineclub

Updated: Jan 31


On the 27th of August I had a cancellation, so thought that it was long overdue that we have a look at the new range of Bruce Jack wines. Bruce Jack is the man who brought us Flagstone, The Berrio, Mary le Bow, and much more. He is a wine visionary, Poet and generally awesome winemaker! He has started a range just named “Bruce Jack” that has a Life Style, Heritage and Reserve range. In this tasting I omitted the Heritage range. The Lifestyle Range strives for unbeatable value by expertly blending grapes from diverse vineyards with distinct climates and soils, crafting deliciously balanced and complex, yummy wines. The Reserve range consists of hand-crafted from specially-grown grapes, these super-premium wines use ancient techniques like open-top fermenters, manual punch downs, and barrel fermentation with wild yeast. The following is the order that we tasted, the comments of the tasters and the average scores.


1. Lifestyle Sauvignon Blanc 2023


Colour- light green. Nose- citrus, pineapple, guava, grassy, Golden Delicious apples. Palate- crisp acidity, grassy, guava, apple, citrus, soft, with a pineapple finish.

Score- 16.00.


2. Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2021


Colour- golden, with a yellow (hay) tinge. Nose- cut grass, citrus, lemon, dusty, lanolin. Palate- crisp acidity, asparagus, lanolin, citrus, grassy, lemon which lingers to the finish.

Score- 16.75.


3. Lifestyle Chenin Blanc 2022


Colour- light green heart gradating to a golden rim. Nose- citrus, cut grass, guava, passion fruit. Palate- crisp acidity, shy, guava, citrus, gooseberry, lemon grass.

Score- 15.85.


4. Boer Maak a Plan Chenin Blanc 2022


Colour- light hay to golden. Nose- citrus with lime and lemon, coconut, baked apple, honey. Palate- crisp acidity, toast, apple, honey, pineapple, citrus, buttery mouth feel, with honey on the finish.

Score- 17.58 (scoring 15th out of 283 wines tasted in 2024).


5. Reserve Chardonnay 2021


Colour- light green heart gradating to a golden rim. Nose- mushroom, spice, butterscotch, vanilla, lemon. Palate- crisp acidity, vanilla, butterscotch, toffee, honey, lime, lemon which lingers to the finish.

Score- 16.42.


6. Lifestyle Sauvignon Blush 2022 (97% Sauvignon Blanc, 3% Shiraz)


Colour- light pink. Nose- guava, red berry and cherry. Palate- grass, guava, black currant and cherry.

Score- 16.08.


7. Lifestyle Bumble Bee NV (100% Muscat d'Alexandrie)


Colour- light green, almost no mousse and fades fast. Nose- sulphur, spice, musk, pear. Palate- crisp acidity, grapes, honey, thin and shy, sulphur.

Score- 14.92 (second lowest score of the year).


8. Lifestyle Pinotage – Malbec 2023 (70% Pinotage, 30% Malbec)


Colour- purple red with no gradation to a red rim. Nose- plum, raspberry, red and black cherry, chocolate, spice. Palate- crisp acidity, soft tannins, caramel, coffee, dark chocolate, cloves, black and red cherry, mulberry which lingers to the finish.

Score- 16.83.


9. Lifestyle Shiraz 2022


Colour- dark almost inky red, with no gradation to a clear rim. Nose- Indian spices, cloves, white pepper, nutmeg, red berry, black cherry. Palate- crisp acidity, firm but softening tannins, white pepper, nutmeg, caramel, burnt sugar, toffee, marmalade, red and black cherry that lingers to the finish.

Score- 16.69.


10. Reserve Pinotage 2021


Colour- inky dark red with almost no gradation to a red rim. Nose- cherry, plum, cloves, chocolate. Palate- crisp acidity, firm tannins, toast, cedar, toffee, mocha, plums, black berry and cherry.

Score- 17.46 (22nd best score for Vats in 2024).


Interesting tasting, the Lifestyle wines are all R89 (the Bumble Bee R95) and the Reserve range R129 to R135, except the Boer Maak a Plan which was R265, at Norman Goodfellows. The Lifestyle wines are all easy drinking, not too complex, but good value, all except for the Bumble Bee. The Reserve range are great wines, at a good price. Top wine was the Boer Maak a Plan, second the Reserve Pinotage and third the Lifestyle Pinotage – Malbec. Bumble Bee faired dismally, chalked itself as the second worst tasted wine for 2024, which narrowly beat the Neethlingshof Malbec 2021, which scored 14.80. All agreed that there may have been something wrong with the wine, we didn’t have a second to taste, so a few were going to buy one to see if it was in fact a bad bottle? Bruce Jack wines in summary very good at the price point!

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