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
NO SURPRISES among the 2024 Absa Top 10 Pinotage trophy winners. They all have good pedigrees, so to speak, with those having top track records over the past 10 years in terms of the SA Wine Classification including Beeslaar, Diemersdal Reserve, Flagstone Writer’s Block, Francois van Niekerk, Kanonkop and La
A 96-POINT rating for a blended white from Somerset West, scores of 95/100 for three other white combos from cellars in Constantia, Durbanville and Stellenbosch, and ditto for a Durbanville Sauvignon Blanc as well as a red blend from Paarl. See below for the names of the most highly recommended
HOW ABOUT THAT!! While the good people at Spier in Stellenbosch were introducing Farmer Angus, the new flagship range among their organic wine offerings, another of their organic-certified wines was impressing British wine masters at the other end of the price spectrum. Highlights of the 2024 Global Chenin Blanc Masters
DEMORGENZON, Kleine Zalze and Spier of Stellenbosch, Leeuwenkuil of Paarl, Lomond of Gansbaai in Cape Agulhas, Saronsberg of Tulbagh, Survivor from Overhex in Worcester… Names regularly associated with top Shiraz from South Africa over the past 10 years that got the nod once again to be included among the Top
ONE OF JUST two dozen or so farms in South Africa producing wines officially certified as organic, Springfontein outside Stanford has been one of the standout estates between Hermanus and Gansbaai for a couple of decades for a number of reasons, one of which is their Pinotage. Winner of the
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
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
THREE of South Africa’s finest wines of the year, 97-pointers at the 2024 Decanter World Wine Awards in the UK and with exceptional credentials established over many years involving numerous vintages – two from Stellenbosch, one from Elgin: Delaire Graff’s Banghoek Chardonnay, also best in class and the top-scoring white
