THE ODDS are stacked in favour of the top-rated Chardonnay in SA Winemag’s 2020 Prescient Report coming from either Elgin or Stellenbosch. The announcement of who and what got the nod was put on hold until an awards function at the end of the year, but of the Top 10
WHAT to take away from Winemag’s 2020 Prescient Report on South African Sauvignon Blanc… For starters, editor Christian Eedes and fellow tasting panel members Roland Peens as well as James Pietersen of Cape Town merchant/cellarer Wine Cellar are among those who generally regard the Bordeaux-style blends and Wooded Sauvignons as
TAKE IN THE VIEW of Lothian Vineyards and you may well think you’re somewhere other than Elgin. The hills and mountains around the edge of the ‘basin’ are a giveaway that you’re in this beautiful part of the Cape winelands once more often associated with apple farming, but the
EDGEBASTON is the name of his wine farm on the slopes of the Simonsberg, but Finlayson is the name that most people in the know associate with top winemakers in the Cape winelands. Of course, he’s not the only one: his father Walter was once cellarmaster at Blaauwklippen and then
DE GRENDEL, Iona, Kershaw, Lothian, Shannon… The Top 10 in Winemag’s 2020 Prescient Pinot Noir Report include a number of vintages from South African cellars with a history of good reviews in this category, most of them WO Elgin. On the other hand, most of the notables absent from the report,
MULDERBOSCH was a pioneer of wooded Chenin Blanc in South Africa. The style quickly gained a following and today many, if not most of the leading wines from this variety so widely planted throughout the Cape have spent time in barrel. Although, the Steen op Hout (Chenin on Wood) from
IT’S UNFORTUNATE that Lievland Vineyards, also home of M·A·N Family Wines, is closed to the public. For the time being, that is. The renovations underway at this Stellenbosch property in the foothills of the Simonsberg might be completed in time for the 2020 festive season, but it could take until
THYS LOUW has positioned The Journal Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinotage and Sauvignon Blanc as the top tier from the family’s farm in the northern reaches of Durbanville. The proprietor of Diemersdal Estate, Thys is the sixth generation of Louws to make wine on the property since they acquired it in 1885
IT WASN’T the first time they’d won with their second-tier Chenin that doesn’t see the inside of a barrel. The grapes come from different blocks relative to those used for their flagship Barrel Fermented version or The Mothership in their ArtiSons range, but the vines are also very mature (experienced?)
REGULAR LAUREATES at the Pinotage Association’s annual Top 10 awards, Rijk’s of Tulbagh and Beyerskloof of Stellenbosch have fared particularly well again in 2020, each with more than one wine included among the 20 finalists announced by the Pinotage Association in advance of the trophy presentations. Begun almost a quarter
AT R94 A BOTTLE, ‘The Innocent’ Syrah 2018 from the Lammershoek (lambs’ corner) farm outside Malmesbury is the only wine among the Top 10 in Winemag’s 2020 Prescient Shiraz Report priced at under R100 – pulling off the same feat that its predecessor achieved in the publisher’s 2019 report on
“MERLOT SOMETIMES gets a bad rap for being sweetish, soft and nothing more,” says Christian Eedes, Winemag.co.za editor and tasting panel chair. However, “the best examples are really luscious and velvety as only Merlot at its finest is able to be… Its crucial characteristic is not its flavour but its
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