Pale straw colour, fine bubble, fresh nose, aromas of baked apple, citrus notes, yeasty I WAS ONE of the sceptics on hearing about Fairview launching their first sparkling wine made according to the Méthode Cap Classique. My misgivings had nothing to do with the ability of proprietor Charles Back and his team to master the method of bottle fermentation in producing a bubbly along
The Three Pines vineyard at Stark-Condé, Jonkershoek Valley STARK-CONDÉ WINES in the Jonkershoek Valley of Stellenbosch was the Most Successful Producer at the 2013 Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show, followed by the cellars of KWV, Delaire Graff, Rustenberg, Cederberg, Rijk’s, Jordan, Diemersfontein, Eikendal, Hillcrest and Simonsig. And just as interesting as the latest reviews regarding some of South Africa’s top quality
HOT AND DRY, PERFECT FOR MUSCADEL: Orange River Cellars, Upington IF THERE’S one type of wine that they’re really good at making in the Orange River Cellars of the Northern Cape it’s sweet wine, and the farmers up and down the river on either side of Upington have been making some of South Africa’s best dessert wines for ages. Their
SYRAH du Monde is held in May every year at Château d’Ampuis in the northern Rhône, France. A taste-off involving some of the world’s best Shiraz, it’s a respected international competition which in 2013 involved 423 wines from 28 countries. Gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded, with much praise heaped on the Top 10. This year five South African
ONE OF the largest wine competitions in the world, the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles culminates with awards being presented in May each year. The International Union of Oènologists who organise the event are based in Belgium, although the judging has been conducted in numerous countries over the years and over 40 nationalities are represented on the tasting panels who determine
THE BIGGEST wine competition in the world takes place in London and involves over 400 judges including over 40 Masters of Wine (UK) as well as wine journalists and wine buyers from around the globe. Medal winners are announced in May every year with trophies presented at an awards dinner held in September. The top-performing South African wines this year
TALK ABOUT the top seeds winning through time and again… At the 2013 Concours Mondial du Sauvignon held in the Loire, France, there was only one real surprise among the most successful South African entries – Totus 2009 being a few years older than most of the other gold medallists and from a Stellenbosch producer new to the podium and
The home of Roodeberg and other KWV brands – an artist’s take on La Concorde, Paarl ROODEBERG was once enjoyed exclusively by wine lovers outside South Africa, by farmers who sold grapes to the Koöperatiewe Wijnbouwers Vereniging, by KWV directors and staff, by friends of the farmers and by those who had contacts at the KWV. The brand was born
NOW IN ITS third year, the Top 100 SA Wine Challenge is a competition with objectives that include “helping to re-position South Africa’s top wines”. According to the organisers: “Consumer friendly and simple, we de-myth the bunk yet keep the romance of fine wine flowing.” The judges are predominantly Masters of Wine (UK), and the Challenge culminates in April each year
THE GOLD MEDAL that Robertson’s Rietvallei Wine Estate has won with a 2012 at this year’s Chardonnay du Monde in Burgundy, France, follows the gold medal they won with a 2011 at the same competition last year. Prior to last year Rietvallei Chardonnay wasn’t on many radar screens, but having been selected among a Top 10 at a reputable tasting
WHAT THE inaugural RE:CM 10 Year Old Wine Awards did not do was to confirm what many believe to be true, namely that all red wine improves with age. Because, of course, it’s not true. What the taste-off did serve to do was to highlight a whole bunch of wines that have withstood the test of time, gone the distance
SPARKLING DAY OUT: scene from the inaugural Casa Labia Bubbly Festival CAN’T WAIT for midday Saturday (16 March) and an afternoon of sipping sparklers on the lawn of Casa Labia in Muizenberg while nibbling various delights and gazing at the waves, surfers and boats on one of the quaint strips of False Bay coastline… From the time the first drinks
THE RESULTS of the 2013 Classic Wine Trophy competition are hardly surprising in terms of the class winners. Particularly not when it comes to the overall victor, with Chamonix scooping three of the 14 trophies awarded in various categories at the Taj Hotel in Cape Town just a few months after being named Winery of the Year in the 2013 edition of
WORD IS GETTING OUT! It was just a few months back that he impressed with a 5 Star rating in Platter’s SA Wine Guide for his 2007 Bordeaux-style blend, Wine of Origin Stellenbosch. Then he released a tiny quantity of the first top-end Pinot Noir under his own label, a 2011 WO Polkadraai Hills. And now we can look forward
WHAT APPEALS most about the Graham Beck Pheasants’ Run is how it affects the senses. Kinda obvious, right?! Over the past 10 years this has become one of South Africa’s Sauvignon Blanc benchmarks, one of the three most consistent top performers in this category together with Steenberg Reserve and Cederberg – no fewer than eight highly rated vintages in succession, including the 2012 released a few
FRANSCHHOEK is even more cool following the introduction of a Wine Tram. It’s a pity that it only stops at two of the farms – Grande Provence and Rickety Bridge – on a route that begins close to the ticket office in the Bijoux Centre on Huguenot Road, but then the trip also includes an option to transfer from the
RAATS: home of the most successful SA Cab Franc and the man who’s done most to create a market for Cape versions of the variety MORE PLEASE! Red Jasper has got many of the delicious things you might dream about in a good Bordeaux-style blend. While perhaps a little too forward for some, it’s a fine example of the many lovely red
SOME OF THE big names will be missing at Hartenberg’s ‘Riesling Rocks’ festival this Saturday afternoon (9 Feb), but hey, you can be sure of a great day… Delectable snacking and sipping on the lawns of the estate off the Bottelary Road (M23) in Stellenbosch – an opportunity to explore Riesling’s reputation as a particularly versatile variety when it comes to
IT SEEMS LIKE only yesterday that you could count the number of South Africa’s good Rieslings on a few fingers and that the labels of these wines were so much more confusing than they are today. Shame on the producers – including Theuniskraal and Van Loveren – who persist in calling wines what they’re not, namely ‘Cape Riesling’ instead of
WITH SOUTH AFRICA’S 2013 wine grape harvest fast approaching, many farmers are re-assessing their cost structures and modus operandi in the wake of wage demands that turned ugly. The following was first published in the Cape Argus newspaper last week… * * * * * Published in the Cape Argus on 18 January 2013 As the smoke clears following the
