Durbanville is one of South Africa’s most exciting and underappreciated wine regions — a series of rolling hills just north of Cape Town, cooled by the Atlantic breezes that sweep in from Table Bay and creating conditions of remarkable finesse for a country more often associated with bold, sun-drenched reds. It is here that Diemersdal has farmed its vineyards for generations, producing wines of a quite distinctive elegance and restraint that set them apart from the Cape’s more exuberant styles. The Private Collection is Diemersdal’s flagship red — a classically-styled Bordeaux blend drawing on all five of the great Bordeaux varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec, and Petit Verdot, each contributing its own character to a wine of real complexity and completeness. The result is a red of genuine distinction: deep in colour, with an elegant and restrained nose that shows the hallmarks of great Cabernet-based wine — that unmistakable hint of lead-pencil shavings alongside fresh red berries and blackcurrants that is the signature of a wine made with real precision and care. On the palate it is beautifully balanced, with dark fruit — mulberries and blackcurrants — woven together with more earthy, savoury tones that add depth and complexity, and a long, lingering finish that speaks of both the quality of the fruit and the skill of the winemaking. South African Bordeaux at its most refined and compelling. At £33.99, it is Diemersdal at their very best.