CONTRARY TO what some people might think, certain wine producer trophy laureates at the mega International Wine & Spirit Competition in the UK are determined less according to the quality and interest value of the wine and more according to the producer’s response to a questionnaire covering a range of
OF THE 36 South African gold medallists chosen from nearly 7000 wines entered in the 2024 International Wine & Spirit Competition (UK), three went on to win trophies, with two of them going to the Vilafonté cellar in Stellenbosch (vineyards in Simonsberg-Paarl) and one to the Perdeberg cellar alongside the
THE DOUBLE GOLD winners at the 2024 Veritas Awards have disclosed what the competition organisers will not… Apart from presenting the Vertex trophy for the most highly rated of the double gold laureates, the powers that be at South Africa’s biggest, longest-running wine show stop short of distinguishing between the
OF THE 61 entries from the 48 producers who submitted their wines for assessment in the 2024 Prescient Cabernet Sauvignon Report published by Winemag.co.za, 28 rated 90 points or more on a 100-point scale. However, only eight wines scored 93 or 94 and not one of South Africa’s Cabs on
NOT MANY wine producers have access to vineyards in the Elandskloof valley of the Overberg district, Western Cape. Anthonij Rupert Wyne of Franschhoek is one of them, and the Chardonnay grapes from Johann Rupert’s Altima Estate just north of Villiersdorp make for a winner under the Cape of Good Hope
THE VARIETY is “in an exciting phase,” said Sauvignon Blanc South Africa chair RJ Botha during the association’s 2024 Top 10 awards presented at De Meye Wine Estate in Stellenbosch. The cellarmaster at Kleine Zalze, Botha commented that the six wooded versions among the winners “showed the winemakers’ craftmanship in
OVER THE YEARS, it’s been one of South Africa’s most highly rated blended red wines – not only according to experts at the Veritas Awards but also those at the Decanter World Wine Awards (UK), the Perold Cape Blend Competition (SA) and Platter’s SA Wine Guide, to name a few.
ON RELEASE, the 2024 Absa Top 10 Pinotage Competition results were trumpeted to and from all corners of South Africa’s Cape winelands and then out to fans around the country, around the world. The Pinotage Association has hosted the challenge every year for going on three decades, and remarkably, all
WHO CAN remember when last The Mentors Perold from KWV of Paarl wasn’t included among the finalists of South Africa’s Perold Cape Blend Competition! A simple explanation is that having been among the winners for the umpteenth time in 2023, the 2020 vintage that they triumphed with then was still
NUMBER TWO and counting… Newstead Lund Family Vineyards of Plettenberg Bay claimed their first victory at the Amorim Cap Classique Challenge in 2020, with the 2015 vintage of their Brut Blanc de Blancs applauded as the overall winner. In the 2024 challenge to South African sparkling wine producers, hosted by
BESIDES the incredible achievement of Stellenrust, who won three of the Top 10 awards for the second year in succession, the results of the 2024 Standard Bank Chenin Blanc Challenge organised by the Chenin industry association of South Africa also shone the spotlight on two more producers who picked up
SOUTH AFRICA’S top-rated wines during the six months to date that are priced at under R150 a bottle – March to August 2024. These are the most highly recommended of the highly recommended by the top wine tasting panels in terms of what’s on offer at below this price ceiling
