FOLLOWING AN article about South Africa’s organic wines on Top Wine SA came an organic/biodynamic wine sale convened by local auction house Strauss & Co, merchants Wine Cellar and sommelier Higgo Jacobs. Whereas there are over 20 organic wine producers in South Africa who market themselves as such, only four
YOU CAN COUNT the number of today’s Top Cape Vintage Port producers on one hand… Okay, maybe two. It’s very specialist, very niche, but very good. One or two in Stellenbosch, one or two in Paarl and Wellington, plus a few in various other districts, however it’s Calitzdorp that has
THE 2020 VINTAGE of Neil Ellis’s Whitehall Chardonnay had only been on the market for a few months when it was included among the Top 4 in Winemag‘s 2021 South African Chardonnay Report. By the end of the year it had been Highly Recommended in Platter‘s SA Wine Guide, and after
USED TO BE that Chateau Libertas from SFW/Distell represented many a South African wine lover’s staple red. That and the likes of a Groot Constantia dry red and KWV Roodeberg, if you could get it, Douglas Green St Augustine if you couldn’t. The sort of red you might graduate to
THIRD TIME LUCKY? Chamonix of Franschhoek had earned gold medals at previous editions of the Cab Franc Challenge with their 2015 and 2016 vintages in 2018 and 2020 respectively. Then, come 2022, they won the overall title with their 2020 vintage. But the Challenge judges haven’t been the only ones
THE R43 244 fetched for a single bottle of the 1966 GS Cabernet at the Strauss & Co auction in Johannesburg on 15 May 2022 was the second-highest price ever paid for this wine – the highest being R91 040, fetched in a sale conducted by the same auction house
ON THE FARM Dekkersvlei in Klein Drakenstein, Paarl, Mellasat is off the beaten track. At these vineyards, proprietor Stephen Richardson, cellarmaster Gizelle Coetzee and their team like to do things somewhat differently. In fact this one’s never been done before… There’s nothing else quite like it. Not the first Cap
WITH SOME vintages it’s recommended that for a refreshing drink you can chill this blend, described by the De Villiers family as a “fun-loving” wine. In recent years, however, the Paul Hugo Red has over-delivered relative what you might expect from the second tier in Landskroon’s portfolio. The 2020 is
WHY SPARKLING wine made according to the Méthode Ancestral(e) is different relative to bubbly made the ‘traditional’ way – aka Champagne, Cava and Cap Classique – is that the fermentation involves a single, continuous process. From a stainless-steel tank, the fermenting wine is bottled and sealed at the point where
OF THE FIVE Worcester wineries that qualify for the South African Cellar Classification, one has made a success of a flagship range associated with places outside the district. The most established of Overhex proprietor Gerhard van der Wath’s Survivor wines, the Pinotage and Chenin Blanc, are made using Swartland grapes
SURELY EVERY wine lover is familiar with a magnum, twice the size of a standard 750ml bottle, but when last did anybody put a 6L methusalah on their table? Many of us would not be comfortable pouring wine from an 18L melchior or solomon bottle weighing over 30kg, let alone
EVEN WHEN it isn’t Easter, there are at least nine top cellars in the Cape winelands of South Africa where the tasting-room experiences extend to chocolate-and-wine pairings. Clearly dessert wine is not the only route to go to enjoy a good marriage, but there are also a number of options
