IT WAS scored 95/100 at the 2024 International Wine Challenge in the UK and was then judged best Pinotage reviewed in Platter’s 2025 South African Wine Guide. As such, the 2022 vintage of The Journal from Diemersdal will be routinely included among the benchmark examples of this South African variety
AT SPRINGFONTEIN, outside the town of Stanford, the focus is on the South African grape varieties Pinotage and Chenel, albeit that the latter’s arrival on the farm was quite recent relative to when the first wine was bottled on the farm in 2004. “We wanted to showcase something indigenous, something
THE MOST highly rated Sauvignon Blanc, the most highly rated white wine and one of the three most highly rated wines overall in the 2025 edition of Platter’s South African Wine Guide: the 2023 vintage of Diemersdal Wild Horseshoe, WO Durbanville. This after 5 Star ratings in the guide for
THE VAN HUYSSTEEN family’s Saronsberg Cellar is renowned for a number of different wines, but Shiraz is the speciality on this farm in the Tulbagh district east of the Swartland, north of Wellington and the Breedekloof. They’ve been at it for a couple of decades and are consistently Classified among
MANY if not most of South Africa’s top red wines released in 2024 are from the 2021 or 2022 vintages – two- or three-year-old wines. Very few of the country’s producers routinely offer wines that are older than five years old. Whereas Buitenverwachting of Constantia hold back their flagship red
WHAT A LOVELY place to relax at on a summer’s day with a chilled glass of something good and interesting… We’re talking Constantia Glen and their No. 2 blend. Again and again, Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon have combined in delightful fashion under the label of ‘Constantia Glen Two’. For over
THE MOST highly rated Chardonnay in Platter’s 2025 South African Wine Guide: the 2022 vintage from Iona in the Elgin Highlands. It follows the 2021, which was a 97-pointer at the Decanter World Wine Awards (UK), and at the time of writing there wasn’t much of it left at the
THE TROPHY winner, the best white wine from South Africa at the 2024 International Wine Challenge in London, UK – one of the biggest, one of the most prestigious wine shows in the world. The release of the 2022 Chardonnay from Lothian of Elgin came months after the Wilson family
ALL THE top trophy winners, all the wines scored 96+ and those that were highly rated by two or more of the top panels – together with the cellar locations and the prices of the wines when last they were checked. All reviewed by teams of experts, panels of wine
ALL THE top trophy winners, all the wines scored 96+ and those that were highly rated by two or more of the top panels – together with the cellar locations and the prices of the wines when last they were checked. All reviewed by teams of experts, panels of wine
5 STARS in Platter’s 2025 SA Wine Guide, from one of the country’s top winemakers in Donovan Rall, using grapes grown on the mountains in the back of beyond, priced at under R150pb and not yet sold out… Not even released yet! The WinterHoek Sauvignon Blanc 2023 from Callender Peak
AT THE TIME of writing there were fewer than 400 bottles / 60 cases left at the cellar in Paarl. Which is hardly surprising, given that it was a trophy winner at the International Wine & Spirit Competition, UK, and a 95-pointer at the Veritas Awards, SA. There was a
