Mourvèdre grown by Beaucastel at the northern edge of the Southern Rhône for example, or Cabernet Sauvignon grown on California’s Santa Cruz or Dunn mountains. Now, South Africa's Constantia Glen winery is going to put that theory to the test.

Constantia Glen sits in South Africa’s Constantia ward, a cool spot just to the south of Cape Town. The winery debuted in the 2005 vintage with a small production of Sauvignon Blanc, a wine that has gotten better every vintage since (the ’07 was outstanding and the ’08 will be released in the U.S. market in November). I sat down with owner Gus Allen and winemaker Karl Lambour here at the office today to catch up on the winery's latest endeavors, which are taking a new bent.

Sauvignon Blanc will still remain in the portfolio for Constantia Glen, but two red wines will debut in the 2007 vintage. The farm itself, a 60-hectare property with 29 hectares of vines (1 hectare = 2.47 acres), is actually planted 80 percent to red varieties and only 20 percent to white varieties. It’s that red slant, nearly opposite from other Constantia wineries, that raises eyebrows.

But the spot the farm sits on is a saddle of land on the opposite side of the mountain from most of the other wine farms in Constantia (there are only eight working wine farms in the ward). That unique position gives its rolling hillsides an extra two and a half hours of afternoon sun a day, a huge difference in viticultural terms. The farm is thus a warm spot in a cool area that otherwise is on the edge of ripening ability.

The two new reds approximate a Left Bank/Right Bank of Bordeaux model: The Constantia Saddle Constantia 2007 combines Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot for a St.-Emilion-style blend. There were 2,200 cases made and the wine should retail for approximately $45.

Alongside it, there will be 1,000 cases of the Constantia 2007, the estate’s flagship wine. Set to retail at $65 per bottle, it's a blend of all five Bordeaux varieties: 32 percent Merlot, 27 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, a healthy 18 percent Malbec and 11.5 percent of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot each.

Both wines were aged for about 14 months in 100 percent new French oak, a regimen that might seem ambitious considering these are cool-climate reds. But Lambour utilized 500-liter barrels in the aging process to produce a second-fill barrellike influence (a ratio of more wine to less wood than in standard 225-liter barrels), a tactic which also kept the winery from having to buy any used barrels from abroad that carry a risk of brettanomyces or other problems in them.

I’ll be very interested to see how the wines perform. The Constantia ward has been making some really nice Sauvignon Blancs and late-harvest wines with the likes of Buitenverwachting and Klein Constantia leading the way. So far as a ward, the reds have been rather weak though. But, that’s why we test theories ...