HIGHLY recommended, R80 a bottle ex-cellar and still available at the time of writing: Wellington Wines Duke Merlot 2023, one of the winners in the Merlot SA Forum’s 2025 Top 10 Competition. Also highly recommended, R125pb ex-cellar and still available at the time of writing: Bellevue Estate Cinsault 2021 from
THE ANNUAL Decanter World Wine Awards: the biggest wine competition on the planet, held in London. In 2025, well over 16 000 entries from 57 countries evaluated by 248 judges from 35 countries including 22 Master Sommeliers and 72 Masters of Wine, scoring according to a 100-point scale. The five
OF THE 650 wines judged at South Africa’s 2025 Trophy Wine Show, 40 were scored 95+ to earn gold medals (see below), and of those, 23 went on to earn trophies (highlighted in purple below). The most highly rated red wine on show: Stellenzicht Arenite Syrah 2023. The most highly
FOR THE FIRST time in five years, South Africa won one of the most prestigious awards at the International Wine Challenge in London, with Le Grand Domaine of Devon Valley in Stellenbosch presented with the trophy for best Cabernet Sauvignon on show at the 2025 edition – ahead of the
BABYLONSTOREN and Cederberg Wines struck gold at the 2025 (19th) edition of Syrah du Monde, the international competition held in France’s Rhône Valley. There were 207 wines (from 22 countries) assessed over two days by 100 judges from around the world, with the 32 gold medallists including South Africans Babylonstoren
THE COMPETITION winners in the South African Winemag’s 2024 Prescient Chenin Blanc Report have a history of glowing reviews for their ‘Perdeberg Dry Land Collection Courageous Barrel Fermented Chenin Blanc’. Quite a mouthful, with previous vintages of this Paarl bottling earning a gold medal at the Global Wine Masters (2023),
HOW ABOUT THAT! Two wins in succession for the Riebeek Valley Wine Co in the SA Winemag’s annual Prescient Shiraz Report, with the Riebeek-Kasteel winery’s RAAR Shiraz Carbonic Maceration 2024 chosen as the panel’s absolute favourite in 2025 after the 2023 vintage triumphed in the previous competition. Only five 500L
“THEY STOOD toe-to-toe with Hawke’s Bay and Margaret River [of Australia] and all but the finest Burgundy [of France]”. High praise indeed from the panel that assessed 128 South African wines for their Chardonnay report in the May ’25 issue of the UK’s Decanter Magazine. The wines were submitted by
HOW ABOUT THAT! First, that the Pinotage Association put the Grand Pinotage “project” to the test in a blind tasting of the 2019 vintage conducted by Gilbert & Gaillard, based in France. Second, that one of the wines involved rated higher than any Pinotage has done before at a G&G
IT’S HAPPENED again… And no doubt once more there will be naysayers, people who can’t believe their eyes and ears, and yet… The humble, big-volume Douglas Green Chardonnay from the Wellington cellars of DGB has won gold and placed among the Top 10 in the 2025 edition of Chardonnay du
THERE ARE wines that impress occasionally with this and that vintage, then there are those that please on a fairly regular basis, and then there are those wines that make you smile big time pretty much every time you open a bottle, whatever the year it was made in. The
THE TOP-RATED wines in the 2025 edition of Platter’s South African Wine Guide – scored 98/100 – are the Cap Classique sparkler Cipher Blanc de Noirs 2018 from the Elgin cellar of Charles Fox, the Wild Horseshoe Sauvignon Blanc 2023 from Diemersdal in Durbanville and the 2022 Shiraz from Saronsberg,
