ONLY R94 a bottle, and in such good company! You might well have expected Bon Courage to lead with their flagship Inkará Shiraz, yet it’s with the relatively humble Pepper Tree version that they have excelled at Syrah du Monde in the Rhône Valley, France – the 2016 vintage from this Robertson wine estate selected among the Top 10 gold
GIULIO BERTRAND’S spread in Somerset West is a fine place to visit. The restaurant 95 at Morgenster serves superb, authentic fare with an Italian slant (e.g. great lamb ravioli!) to complement the good wines, a number of which are made from Italian varieties. It’s with French cultivars, however, that Morgenster has had most success on the world stage: the Bordeaux-style
NICE! Following the naming of South Africa’s 15 gold medallists at the 2018 International Wine Challenge (UK), the announcement of the country’s trophy winners pointed to some of the country’s all-time greats… You can’t talk about top Cape Pinot without including Bouchard Finlayson of the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley – cellarmaster Peter Finlayson headed up the first winery in the area. Kaapzicht of Bottelary
WITH South Africa’s Cabernet Sauvignon particularly topical in May, following Winemag’s annual review of the category for their Prescient Report, it seemed a good time to circulate an update of the prices being charged for the country’s leading examples – the Top 20 Cabs according to the SA Wine Classification. Cellar-door prices are those posted by the producers and the market survey
BELOW are the top Cabernet Sauvignon producers in South Africa over the past 10 years, those with the best track records spanning 2008 to 2017, presented according to where you’ll find their tasting rooms on the various wine routes. For the 2018 SA Cabernet Sauvignon Classification, see here, and for the contact info and addresses of those outfits that can be visited
A SURVEY of what top reds and whites are selling for at South Africa’s leading wine shops relative to cellar-door prices points to consistency in some areas and big discrepancies in others. Those who love to visit the wine routes might be disappointed to discover, if they aren’t already well aware, that what you pay on the farm is often
THE COMPETITION is unusual insofar as the assessments are done and the medallists announced in two tranches six months apart, followed weeks later by news of various trophy winners, and a couple of months after that by an awards dinner at which the top trophies are presented. One of the biggest events of its kind as regards the thousands of
Hell no! Or hip hip hooray? At the end of the 2018 grape harvest in the Cape, SA wine industry body Vinpro has again advocated that: “Amidst a looming wine shortage, the South African wine industry needs an upward price adjustment to ensure sustainable supply going forward.” According to Vinpro’s annual Wine Harvest Report, wine grape production is at 1.2 million tonnes
NO FEWER than 34 of the 89 wines reviewed for the 2018 Prescient Cabernet Sauvignon Report were considered excellent (90 to 92 points on the 100-point scale). Better still, six more of South Africa’s beauties were regarded as outstanding (93 to 95). And interestingly, the judges’ favourite on the day is from outside Stellenbosch! Full report here. TOP 6 IN
JACOLINE Haasbroek has the smallest cellar in Franschhoek, off the beaten track at the end of a long and winding road that could do with some improvement – although that would mean more visitors, and half the appeal is the discovery of a place few have been to, particularly as the sign at the bottom of the ‘driveway’ often tells you
IT BEGGARS belief on hearing that a red wine from one of the main drags on South Africa’s Paarl wine route can be judged good enough to win a gold medal yet sell for just R48 per bottle at the cellar door on the farm. Believe it. Landskroon pulled it off as a laureate at the 2018 Cab Franc Challenge!
ELGIN’S strong suits are Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc, in that order. This district of the SA winelands is also home to some interesting white blends, Riesling, Shiraz and then some. Not all of the producers open their doors to the wine-loving public all of the time, with some only offering tastings and sales at their cellar doors on
WRITING on Winemag.co.za, leading South African wine critic Michael Fridjhon reflects that: “The debate around closures has been part of the world of wine for several decades, and like most matters where belief carries more weight than the facts, it has acquired the intensity of religious dogma. There are several obvious reasons for this: from the moment an alternative to
MOST WINE lovers are familiar with the ‘Certified’ seal on the neck of most bottles of South African wine, the sticker indicating that the variety, vintage and area that the grapes come from have been checked and confirmed by the country’s Wine and Spirit Board. In fact, with the help of SAWIS, the numbers on the seal make it possible to
WHAT AN intriguing selection, the Top 6 in the 2018 Cab Franc Challenge. Where do Anthology wines come from? Well, the Johannesburg proprietor has been renting cellar space at Marklew in Stellenbosch for several years now. My Wyn is another small producer, high up the side of a mountain in Franschhoek. Rainbow’s End isn’t much bigger, situated in the Banghoek area between Stellenbosch and
JUST PRIOR to South Africa’s annual general wine price increases in March and April 2018, grape farmers were forecasting the smallest crop since 2005 and the financial pressure on wine producers continued to mount. In response, Vinpro MD Rico Basson advocated during his ‘state of the industry’ review that pushing up prices was a means of dealing with the situation. And growing in
THE 2017 Uber Value SA Wine Guide was published in December. Four months later – after the annual general price hikes and VAT increase in March and April 2018 – a number of the wines that received very good reviews from one or more of the top panels in 2017 and which were previously selling at under R100 a bottle
DROUGHTS aside, to state the obvious… Darling can be a pretty good place to grow vines and harvest grapes for making lovely wines – especially Sauvignon Blanc. So good, in fact, that it’s remarkable how many producers based outside the district use fruit from the area – even though few spell this out on their labels. Successful wines from non-Darling wineries
EIGHT WINES from Sauvignon Blanc, with Eight Rows in the Hall of Fame, four Sauvignons in the SA Wine Classification, three in the Top 20 and two in the Top 10. Diemersdal Estate of Durbanville is not the only leading Sauvignon producer in South Africa, but no other winery comes close as regards their success as a specialist with so many versions of
NITIDA winemaker Daniel Keulder tells of how in 2012 the Wild Child “started off as a bit of an experiment with a wild ferment in a couple of barrels”. Hence the name of a Sauvignon Blanc still made largely using a method involving natural or indigenous rather than inoculated or cultured yeast, one of several wines produced from this variety at
