STILL AVAILABLE at the time of writing on 17 August 2022: REALLY GOOD REDS UNDER R100 Brink Family Pinotage 2019 R90pb from Pulpit Rock cellar, Riebeek West. Finalist in Top 10 Pinotage Competition. MAN Skaapveld Syrah 2020 R85pb ex-cellar, Simonsberg-Stellenbosch. 97/100 at Trophy Wine Show. Windmeul Shiraz 2020 R70pb ex-cellar, Paarl. Finalist in Shiraz SA Challenge. REALLY GOOD WHITE UNDER
FOR DECADES the top white wine in DGB’s premium Bellingham range was labelled The Bernard Series Old Vine Chenin Blanc: WO Coastal Region, with grapes from Bottelary in Stellenbosch playing the leading role. Come 2020, a single-vineyard version was released, 2018 being the maiden vintage, the fruit from Durbanville plantings dating back to 1983 and with the front label proclaiming
JUNE 2022: Richard Kershaw’s GPS Series Cape South Coast Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2020 is celebrated as one of the most highly rated wines at the International Wine & Spirit Competition in London. Two months later: the same beauty from the Master of Wine’s cellar in Elgin is the critics’ favourite in Winemag’s annual Prescient Sauvignon Blanc Report. The only other wine
A JOURNEY of discovery! That’s what they promise to put on your plates and the same can be said about what they pour into your glass. The FYN dining experience was recently ranked among the World’s Top 50, following its inclusion among the Top 20 according to Cape Town’s Inside Guide, and one wonder’s how it will rate in terms
AT THE time of writing, word on the grapevine was that arrangements were at an advanced stage in preparation for a public tasting of wines that excelled at the prestigious 2022 Trophy Wine Show. Not long to wait, apparently. In the meantime, the month of August already offers plenty of opportunities for wine lovers to venture out and about –
THE 2018 Private Bin R163 from Distell’s Nederburg of Paarl, South Africa, was among the Top 6 in The Drinks Business Global Cabernet Sauvignon Masters 2022 held in the UK – the other five ‘Master’ award winners coming from Napa Valley (2) and Washington in the USA, and from Eden Valley and Barossa Valley in Australia. The 2018 vintage of
ELGIN’S Paul Cluver, whose 2020 Estate Chardonnay was the top-scoring white at the 2022 Trophy Wine Show, has a distinguished track record for producing some of South Africa’s finest Chardonnays (and Pinot Noirs). Whereas Glen Carlou on the Simonsberg side of Paarl, whose 2019 Collection Red Blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc was the top-scoring red wine at
WHO SAYS YOU can’t enjoy a chilled Sauvignon Blanc in the winter! Especially on those warm days… Plus, 97 points and a platinum award at the Decanter World Wine Awards (UK) is enough to put the 2021 vintage from Constantia Glen on any wine lover’s radar! Top-scoring South African Sauvignon as judged by Masters of Wine and Master Sommeliers at
KANONKOP, De Toren, Vilafonté, Meerlust, Raats, Alto… These were the most-wanted wines in terms of South African producers at Strauss & Co’s Bordeaux-themed auction conducted in Johannesburg mid-2022. Kanonkop Paul Sauer 2015 fetched nearly R4000 a bottle. SA ‘first growth’; good vintage. However, the really big-ticket items were from France, Italy and the USA: Pétrus, Screaming Eagle, Harlan, Haut Brion,
WHAT TO MAKE of the inaugural Top 10 Merlot Competition organised by the South African Merlot Forum, an industry association whose members include over 40 wine farms. 71 entries from the various districts around the Cape winelands. Not bad, considering it’s the first edition of this challenge, but a way to go given that there are in excess of
SOUTH AFRICA came away from the 2022 International Wine & Spirit Competition (UK) with more gold medals than any other country, including France. Of the thousands of wines entered, nearly 700 were from 169 producers in the Cape, with 88% of these awarded a medal: 28 gold, 234 silver and 355 bronze. Top-scoring for South Africa were Kanonkop Cabernet Sauvignon
FOLLOWING AN article about South Africa’s organic wines on Top Wine SA came an organic/biodynamic wine sale convened by local auction house Strauss & Co, merchants Wine Cellar and sommelier Higgo Jacobs. Whereas there are over 20 organic wine producers in South Africa who market themselves as such, only four – Joostenberg, Laibach, Longridge and Reyneke – were represented in
YOU CAN COUNT the number of today’s Top Cape Vintage Port producers on one hand… Okay, maybe two. It’s very specialist, very niche, but very good. One or two in Stellenbosch, one or two in Paarl and Wellington, plus a few in various other districts, however it’s Calitzdorp that has been the Port Capital of South Africa for several decades
THE 2020 VINTAGE of Neil Ellis’s Whitehall Chardonnay had only been on the market for a few months when it was included among the Top 4 in Winemag‘s 2021 South African Chardonnay Report. By the end of the year it had been Highly Recommended in Platter‘s SA Wine Guide, and after some more time in bottle it was considered 95+ on
THE DECANTER World Wine Awards in the UK are mega. 18 244 entries in 2022, a world record as international wine competitions go. Judged over two weeks, with the various panels comprising some 250 experts including more than 41 Masters of Wine and 13 Master Sommeliers. 8074 bronze medals awarded, 5900 silvers, 676 golds, 165 platinum medals and 50 wines
THE WINNER of Wineland Media’s 2022 photo competition, sponsored by FELCO and conducted via social media, was Nicolaas van Rensburg of the Breedekloof farm Morgenrood. The caption for his image: “A pot of Semillon at the end of the rainbow.” Semillon is one of the Breedekloof’s strengths, with the Deetlefs ‘Familie’ version from the family’s farm outside Rawsonville among the
A PINOTAGE-BASED red blend from the Flagstone winery in Somerset West, a Sauvignon Blanc from Paul Cluver in Elgin, a Cape Port from De Krans in Calitzdorp and the flagship Cap Classique sparkler from Graham Beck in Robertson. The four Wines of the Year at South Africa’s 2022 National Wine Challenge, and the producers were chuffed: “We are over the
USED TO BE that Chateau Libertas from SFW/Distell represented many a South African wine lover’s staple red. That and the likes of a Groot Constantia dry red and KWV Roodeberg, if you could get it, Douglas Green St Augustine if you couldn’t. The sort of red you might graduate to after Tassenberg, before going on to, say, Alto Rouge or
THERE ARE a number of South African wine estates that are farmed either organically or biodynamically but where the powers that be aren’t inclined to deal with the red tape or pay the costs associated with official certification. Then there are those producers who dip their toes in, so to speak, with one or two wines carrying the word ‘organic’
IT’S UNIQUE. Over a long weekend in May every year throughout the small towns of Graaff-Reinet and Nieu Bathesda in South Africa’s Great Karoo, thousands of wine lovers arrive from far and wide to meander among the houses, wandering from veranda to veranda – or stoep to stoep, as they say in Afrikaans. Every hotel, guesthouse and BnB is fully
