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Category: Spotlight

Top SA wines under R200 on Vivino – where anybody has a say

BELIEVE it or not, Vivino claims to have over 74m users of their website/app and over 19m wine listings – millions of wine lovers sharing their experiences. From their HQ in Copenhagen, Denmark: “Our community has rated and reviewed millions of wines, creating the most comprehensive database of what real

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Call to enter the Investec Trophy Wine & Trophy Spirits Shows

Enter the 2026 Investec Trophy Wine Show and Investec Trophy Spirits Show competitions now! This year the Trophy Wine Show celebrates its 25th edition. Each year, in the quarter century of its existence, it has assembled panels composed of some of the most influential judges in the world. Their discoveries

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Harvest-time tastes & traditions celebrated at La Motte

There are many reasons why harvest time at La Motte is so lovable. The farm is abuzz with an infectious energy, but this special season also celebrates the farm’s French Huguenot winemaking traditions and tastes that became somewhat of a treasure over the years. As is the annual custom, guests

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The Most Highly Rated Red in Platter’s 2026 SA Wine Guide

THE PREVIOUS Heritage Syrah from Leeuwenkuil Family Vineyards was the 2019 vintage, rated 96/100 in Winemag’s 2024 Shiraz Report. No 2020, no 2021, and then POW! A near-perfect score of 99 points for the 2022 vintage in Platter’s 2026 South African Wine Guide. “Straight out of Côte Rotie,” said Platter’s

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Leeuwenkuil… Crafting award-winning wines in the Swartland

10 YEARS AGO it wasn’t a name you’d be familiar with on the shelves of wine stores and supermarkets. Today it’s renowned as one of South Africa’s top labels in terms of quality and interest value… Leeuwenkuil (lion’s lair) was named after the large cats that once roamed the area,

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Reviving the tradition of SA fortified and sweet wines…

OVER 150km / 1½hr drive from Cape Town, at the beach with not a vineyard in sight, The Saldanha Wine & Spirit Co of Adi Badenhorst and his cousin Hein is the only specialist Sherry-style wine producer in South Africa. According to Master of Wine Cathy van Zyl, writing for

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Kaapzicht, Capensis, Meerlust get the thumbs-up from CWG

IT STANDS to reason that because members of the Cape Winemakers Guild include a number of South Africa’s top cellarmasters, and as admission is by invitation only, whenever newcomers are welcomed on board it’s meaningful to wine lovers looking for pointers regarding top quality, interesting stuff – CWG members’ wines,

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What more appropriate Pinotage to end the centenary with

GUARDIANS of the Pinotage legacy. That’s how they refer to themselves at the Bellevue Wine Estate in Bottelary, Stellenbosch. It’s from this farm, now owned by Marinus Neethling, that the grapes came from for the very first Pinotage wine released onto the market in 1961, the Lanzerac Pinotage 1959, back

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Pinotage a variety that Koelenhof Winery is rather good at

FROM a vineyard that recently turned 50, the current-release 2022 Stellenbosch 1679 Old Vine Pinotage is probably the best vintage of this wine since the maiden 2019. Its rating of 97+ at the Global Wine Masters (UK) followed a score of 95/100 at the Fine Wine Awards (SA), which came

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Stellenbosch 1679: where history and fine wine(s) meet

Talk about a success story! Launched in 2019, the first of Koelenhof Winery’s flagship Stellenbosch 1679 range was the 2017 Bush Vine Chenin Blanc. Soon thereafter The Legacy red was introduced, a Cape Bordeaux-style blend, and then came the Pinotage and the Cabernet Sauvignon. All now with awards and high

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Top white wine at Veritas Awards from cellar within a cellar

WITHIN the large Perdeberg outfit in the north-western reaches of South Africa’s Paarl district there’s a boutique cellar where dry-farming (unirrigated) culminates in two special wines under the Endura label, one white and one red – a single-vineyard Chenin and a Pinotage-driven Cape Blend. With 2017 having been the first

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Perdeberg’s Endura: celebrating endurance in every sip

At the heart of Perdeberg’s winemaking philosophy lies a profound respect for resilience, and nowhere is that spirit more beautifully captured than in the Endura range. These wines pay tribute to the enduring journey of dry-farmed vines, which thrive against the odds to deliver fruit of remarkable concentration and flavour.

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