IT WAS ONLY a matter of time… 2019 was when winemaker Elunda Basson took charge of the cellar at the Beck Family Estates’ Steenberg farm in Tokai on the Constantia Wine Route after making a name for herself as a bubbly champion in Stellenbosch. Six years later, the 2019 vintage
IN 2019, the Jordan Estate in Stellenbosch Kloof was the first South African wine producer to plant Assyrtiko, a white, Greek grape variety indigenous to the island of Santorini… 2022 was the first vintage of Jordan Assyrtiko to be bottled, with quantities so tiny that for the first few years
SOME HAVE never heard of Clarens. Whereas art lovers and folk who enjoy South African road trips might well have chanced upon it, a little village in the Free State where they’re organising a festival, the first of its kind but which will have adventurous wine lovers thinking of the
IT’S NOT the first time that Groot Constantia Grand Constance has placed among the Top 10 gold medallists at Muscats du Monde in Burgundy, France. In July 2025 it was with the 2021 vintage, in 2024 it was with the 2019, and the estate has regularly earned gold from this
THE WINNERS of South Africa’s 2025 Chenin Blanc Top 10 Challenge – convened by the Chenin Blanc Association and sponsored by Standard Bank – brought to 33 the various expressions of the country’s signature white wine variety that have been very highly rated by top panels locally and internationally during
JUDGED BEST overall in Winemag.co.za’s 2025 SA Sauvignon Blanc Report sponsored by Prescient, the 2024 vintage of The Journal from Diemersdal is testimony to the good track record and interest value of this SB specialist in Durbanville – the 2022 vintage having excelled at the Trophy Wine Show earlier in
JUDGED ‘Best Red Wine Overall’ at the 2025 edition of South Africa’s premier wine competition, the Trophy Wine Show: the 2023 vintage of the Arenite Syrah from Hans von Staff-Reitzenstein’s Stellenzicht estate below the Helderberg mountains in Stellenbosch. Shiraz was first planted at Stellenzicht in the 1980s, the 1994 vintage
THREE wines top-scored at South Africa’s 2025 Fine Wine Awards: the 2020 vintage of The High Road Director’s Reserve from Les Sweiden’s cellar at Bosman’s Crossing in Stellenbosch where Miles Mossop is the consulting winemaker, a Cab-led red blend that regularly receives warm to glowing reviews from the top panels;
HOW MANY of us thought the days of a really good red at under R100 a bottle were behind us… R99pb for one of the Top 12 in the 2025 Shiraz SA Challenge! The 2024 vintage of Skaapveld Shiraz from MAN Family Wines at Lievland Vineyards in Stellenbosch, although the
SOME OF South Africa’s top producers are not members of the Cape Winemakers Guild. Admission is by invitation only, and some who have been invited feel that the Guild is not for them. However, most of those who are active CWG members count among the country’s very best, most experienced
TOWN HALL in Stellenbosch or Palms Centre in Woodstock, Cape Town. Wine Festival or Wine Party ‘Under the Atrium’. The festival gets underway the day before, but Saturday 2 August is when things will be buzzing at both venues, and not easy to choose between them. Within easy travelling distance
SALSIFY at the Roundhouse on the slopes of Table Mountain in Camps Bay, Cape Town, was judged South Africa’s No. 1 restaurant at the 2025 Eat Out Awards. Chef-Patron Ryan Cole and his team have been on top form for a number of years, so what to expect of his
