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Category: In the Spotlight

From really old Pinotage vines… Meerendal Heritage Block

THE NUMBER of wines on the market that are made from seriously old Pinotage vineyards (way over 50 years) edged back up from three to four following the release of the 2023 Heritage Block Pinotage from Herman Coertze’s Meerendal Wine Estate in Durbanville, Western Cape. Meerendal was one of the

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Tuscan-inspired Bordeaux-style Collector’s Red of note

Every three months, members of Caroline’s Quarterly Wine Club look forward to more new discoveries from top South African producers. “Wine lovers can sit back and have our fine selections delivered wherever you are in the country,” says Caroline Rillema of Caroline’s Fine Wine Cellar in Cape Town. “We select

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Pinotage on the menu is a thing at the Beyerskloof bistro

PINOTAGE, Pinotage, Pinotage… At the Truter family’s Beyerskloof Wine Estate in Stellenbosch, they call themselves “The Home of Pinotage”, and for good reason. On the winelist, the number of different expressions by the bottle or by the glass stands at nine – more if you add the Pinotage-led Cape Blends.

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Small Parcels of wines with interesting backstories

Every three months, members of Caroline’s Quarterly Wine Club look forward to more new discoveries from top South African producers. “Wine lovers can sit back and have our fine selections delivered wherever you are in the country,” says Caroline Rillema of Caroline’s Fine Wine Cellar in Cape Town. “We select

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Paul Sauer, Columella, Vin de Constance… Auction highlights

STELLENBOSCH, Swartland, Constantia… Wine from Kanonkop, the Sadie Family and Klein Constantia were most in demand as regards South African producers represented at Strauss & Co’s ‘2015 Vintage’ online auction concluded on 10 March ’25. The highest price fetched at the sale was R7035 (US$386) for a single bottle (750ml)

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A rather rare, very unusual wine… Cederberg Bukettraube

BUKETTRAUBE can be a lovely aromatic white wine, so why is David Nieuwoudt’s outfit among the Cederberg mountains the only top South African producer that makes one? Well, this is a grape variety particularly susceptible to downy/powdery mildew, a serious disease that can cause severe crop loss and which is

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Special Discoveries from across the Cape winelands

Every three months, members of Caroline’s Quarterly Wine Club look forward to more new discoveries from top South African producers. “Wine lovers can sit back and have our fine selections delivered wherever you are in the country,” says Caroline Rillema of Caroline’s Fine Wine Cellar in Cape Town. “We select

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A rather rare, very unusual wine… Aliquid Novi Pinotage

A PINOTAGE that originates in a vineyard unlike any other: 24 double rows of vines planted in a fan-like semi-circle to expose the plants to varying amounts of sunlight through 180 degrees. A tiny patch of land in a residential area at the southernmost tip of the Jonkershoek ward in

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Boekenhoutskloof Syrah and Sadie Columella star on auction

AT THE timed, online Rhône Theme wine auction conducted by Strauss & Co on 10 February 2025, somebody paid over R8000 for a bottle of 1997 Syrah from Boekenhoutskloof in Franschhoek – double the price fetched for the second-most in-demand SA wine on this occasion, a bottle of the red

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The Garland 2020 “silky, effortless” – Platter’s No. 1 Cab

THE GARLAND 2020 from Simonsig in Koelenhof-Stellenbosch is the most highly rated Cabernet Sauvignon in the 2025 edition of Platter’s South African Wine Guide. Five Stars, 97 points on the critics’ 100-point scale, tasted ‘blind’, the identity of the wine not disclosed during the final round of assessment. This after

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