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 South African expressions of the variety. Two other standouts in
“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 texture, which can be described in one word – smooth.
ACCORDING to the buying guide / cellar-door prices for the panel’s favourites in Winemag’s 2020 Prescient Cape Bordeaux Red Blend Report, Org de Rac of Piketberg in the Swartland could have fielded the best-value entry in the competition at R250 a bottle. On the other hand, the publishers chose to front the report with a scenic image of Warwick among
THERE ARE very few if any other sport stars in the world whose wine is as smiled-upon as that of Ernie Els. Not that he’s the sole proprietor of the farm these days, not since 2015 when Baron Hans von Staff-Reitzenstein (LVS Capital) of Germany became a partner in the Stellenbosch business – the same real-estate investor and industrialist who subsequently
THEY CALL it ‘The Tea Leaf’. On the label, there’s reference to a ‘brew’, and yes, there is a note of tea in the flavour profile. But it’s made from grapes, fermented in tank and barrel, and a rather fine wine at that – a favourite of the Winemag panel and one of the best-value combinations reviewed in their 2020
100 SUBMISSIONS from 78 producers was an impressive level of involvement by the South African wine industry in Winemag’s 2020 Prescient Cabernet Sauvignon Report. Most of the top seeds participated, the majority of the country’s benchmark Cabs on the tasting bench for assessment by the panel comprising editor Christian Eedes (chair) with fine wine retailers Roland Peens and James Pietersen
IT HAS TO BE one of the most famous quotes to do with wine: “I only drink Champagne when I’m happy, and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company, I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I am not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it
THERE WAS little fanfare associated with Winemag’s 2020 Cape White Blend Report. Perhaps in part this had to do with the uphill battle to establish a new category which Winemag reasons should hinge on the most widely planted grape vine in South Africa, Chenin Blanc. Some of the country’s finest wines are single-varietal Chenins, and the best-value blend as reviewed
THE POWERS that be at Winemag.co.za delay the announcement of exactly how the panel rated their South African favourites in the publication’s various category reviews – a Top 10 is all they’ll tell us in each instance until divulging the rankings / scores out of 100 and the names of all the winners at a gala function come the end
FOR THE QUESTIONS, answers and in part heated outbursts that ensued after publication of Winemag’s 2020 Prescient Cap Classique Report, click here. For the full report and reviews of 50 South African sparkling wines made according to the traditional method, click here. Suffice to say: some of the online publication’s readers faulted the findings for being based on a competition
IT WAS IN 1694 that Rust en Vrede was established among the foothills of what became known as the Helderberg area of the Stellenbosch winelands. The Engelbrecht family have been the proprietors since the late 1970s, and for over 40 years the farm has been one of South Africa’s leading producers, specialising in red wines. The ‘Estate’ blend of
THE CONTENTIOUS issue of wine ratings and awards continues to flare up from time to time, with outspoken wine lovers, wine scribes, critics and judges at odds with each other to the point of disbelief, even outrage. The problem? Firstly, there’s not enough consensus regarding which scoring system to use – star ratings aside, there are different versions of the
WHAT ARE the chances! Using grapes gown near Elim, Cape Agulhas, they top-scored in Winemag’s SA Shiraz roundup, and with grapes grown near Ceres they topped the charts first in the publication’s SA Pinot Noir review and then in their Prescient Chardonnay Report in which 65 South African producers participated. All in the same year! Congratulations to cellarmaster Charles
HAVING read Winemag’s Signature Red Blend Report in which two vintages of Alto Rouge from the Helderberg in Stellenbosch were given excellent reviews and priced at R120 a bottle, the hunt was on. However, shopping for a bargain wine requires a good sense of humour! Alto Rouge was on special at Pick n Pay for R100 a bottle, as we
“PERHAPS the ‘Cape Blend’ is simply a concept that has run out of time” – Winemag’s Christian Eedes, commenting on the poor showing and no-shows by Pinotage-driven combos for the publication’s 2019 Signature Red Blend Report. Perhaps what many Cape Blend producers have a problem with is the random nature of this competition whereby almost anything goes – apart from
COULDN’T help it! At first glance, what first ‘jumped out’ of Winemag’s 2019 Cape Bordeaux Red Blend Report was that one of the Top 5 is from a cellar in Worcester, and selling for a lot less than most of the top-rated submissions from Stellenbosch and Somerset West! Turns out that the Leipzig Grand Master 2017 is made from grapes
THERE ISN’T another wine tasting venue quite like theirs. Very few farms in South Africa are as successful when it comes to organic wines labelled as such. And while they might well be better known by many for some of their Ladybird wines than for most of their Reserves, the wine they’re best at is Merlot, Claypot Merlot –
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED in Platter’s South African Wine Guide, an outstanding review on Winemag, then platinum at the Decanter World Wine Awards in the UK. Tokara Director’s Reserve 2016. So consistently good over the years. One of the Top 10 white blends in the SA Wine Classification, Top Wine SA Hall of Fame, Top 20 in the SA Cellar Classification.
THE ENGELBRECHT family and their team have maintained Rust en Vrede’s reputation as one of South Africa’s top red wine cellars for the past 40 years or so, ever since the Stellenbosch estate began specialising in Cabernet and Shiraz, either in collaboration or on their own. All of these reds are Classified, with the Estate blend as well as
THE STATUS of Morgenster as one of South Africa’s top cellars hinges largely on the reputation of the Estate Reserve, a top class Bordeaux-style combo and one of the Top 10 red blends overall in the SA Wine Classification. Hall of Fame. R490 a bottle for the 2013 vintage. Of late, however, the Somerset West property’s single varietals have been
