NOT A RECORD price for the 1986 Vin de Constance, but pretty darn close! The R56K+ (US$3098) fetched for a bottle during the August ’24 Cape Heritage Auction conducted by Strauss & Co was marginally below the highest price ever fetched for a 500ml bottle of the sweet Muscat from
IS THERE anybody who’s a fan of South Africa’s Stellenbosch wine route and who hasn’t yet seen or heard about the croc across the water from the The Jordan Restaurant, Cellar Door and picnic lawns at the estate? It’s been there for a while, actually – a statue (?) that
AT THE TIME of writing, the bone-dry Fino-style sherry from the farm Klein Amoskuil in the Malmesbury ward of the Swartland district was the only wine of it’s kind on the market. There have been other examples of South African sherries involving the solera process made famous by the Spanish
REPORTING on the 2024 Global Syrah Masters for The Drinks Business publication in London, Master of Wine Patricia Stefanowicz compared the Shiraz plantings of France, at about 70 000ha, to Australia’s 36 000ha. South Africa’s are in the order of 9000ha. Reflecting on the judge’s assessment of some 100 single-varietal wines
AFTER assessing 46 wines for Winemag’s 2024 Prescient Pinotage Report, panel chair Christian Eedes remarked on the appealing “new wave” entries led by the 2023 vintages of Black Elephant Vintners’ Rumble in the Jungle and illimis, compared to the “more traditional” examples that impressed with “depth of fruit and all-round
VIURA, also known as Macabeo, is a white wine grape that originated in Spain, where it is an important variety in the regions of Rioja and Catalonia – also widely planted in the southern regions of France. Think big grape clusters, big berries, thick skin – drought resistant, well suited
Wine Concepts are thrilled to invite wine lovers to their annual Seductive Sauvignons Wine Festival. Following previous successes, this year’s event promises to be an exclusive evening of exceptional wine tasting. The festival will feature an exciting, diverse selection of latest-release Sauvignon Blancs (including bubblies and dessert wines), current vintages
HOW TIMES have changed since the days when wine lovers regarded Alvi’s Drift as a producer of sweet Muscat – a good one, but little else from the Alfalfa estate and dairy farm. Decades later, they still offer a lovely dessert wine, however the Worcester outfit has become known mainly
Caroline’s 2024 edition of her annual Red Wine Review, hailed as one of the most prestigious tasting events on the South African wine calendar, will be staged on Thursday 25 July in the Members’ Lounge at the DHL Stadium alongside Fritz Sonnenburg Road in Green Point, Cape Town. Hosted by
HE’S DONE IT again! Elgin winemaker Richard Kershaw MW was one of the four top-scoring South African producers at the 2024 International Wine & Spirit Competition in London – the 97/100 for his 2020 Kershaw Clonal Selection Chardonnay following more scores in the high 90s for two other Chardonnays he
THE CEDERBERG takes precedence for David Nieuwoudt, proprietor of the only cellar in this corner of the South African winelands, but he’s had an affair with the winelands of Chile that goes back decades. It was in South America that he came across Sauvignon Gris for the first time 20
SHENK or SKENK… However you choose to pronounce it, the Schenkfontein cellar in Eendekuil – 30km outside Piketberg off the N7, about a two-hour drive from Cape Town – is not familiar to many wine lovers outside the Swartland. The first certified bottlings from the farm of Hennie Hanekom and
