IT WAS MADE to enjoy when dining on fish, and served chilled, poured at 12°C or so as per most white wines, although it’s not… The 2021 vintage of red Grenache under the Donkiesbaai label is one of half a dozen or so South African bottlings from the variety very highly rated by panels of experts in 2023 – this
ITALIAN for Bacchus, the Roman God of Wine, Bacco is also the name of a new wine estate in the Simonsberg area of Paarl where proprietor Nathan Jankelowitz and his team are attracting attention in more ways than one. Opened to the public at the end of 2022, the Bacco tasting room and restaurant present a multi-sensory experience. There’s the
BEFORE being honoured with a trophy at the Global Fine Wine Challenge in Sydney, Australia, Tokara’s 2020 Director’s Reserve White blend was a 95-pointer at Decanter’s World Wine Awards in the UK and then a gold medallist at the Global Masters, also in the UK. Tough to better this, and yet… Stellenrust’s 2022 Barrel Fermented Chenin was applauded with the
THE LIMIETBERG can seem somewhat unreal at times. The light can play tricks on the mountains above those green valleys, although the rocky slopes can indeed be pretty red. Blood red even. Hence the name of the flagship Malbec from Doolhof Wine Estate in Wellington – the ‘Bloedklip’ 2018 having been ranked alongside some of the finest expressions of the
ELGIN is best known for Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc… Merlot less so. Chenin Blanc even less so. Yet Elgin Merlot and Chenin are what Cape wine producers excelled with most at the 2022 Global Fine Wine Challenge, hosted in Sydney, with the competing nations including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the USA. In previous years, South Africa
WE MIGHT never know whether the pink wine from Aaldering of Devon Valley in Stellenbosch was a contender for one of the 2022 Pinotage Rosé Awards. It might have been interesting to see whether the panel appointed by the Pinotage Association concurred with that at the Michelangelo Awards (SA) who a few weeks earlier had presented a trophy no less
2020 IS THE NINTH vintage of the Field Blend from Stark-Condé, the fruit coming from an unusual vineyard on a slope close to the stream at the bottom of the Oude Nektar farm in Jonkershoek Valley, Stellenbosch. The block has various soil types and is planted to a number of different white grape varieties – whereas most blocks of
THE LE RICHE cellar has always been there or thereabouts when considering South Africa’s leading producers of Cabernet Sauvignon over the past decade or so! However, the last three years have been particularly successful for the family, with rave reviews from critics locally and internationally, culminating in victory at the Global Fine Wine Challenge in Sydney where the 2018 vintage
A COMPETITION of which the results are talked up in stages, the Global Fine Wine Challenge in Sydney picks up where the Six Nations Wine Challenge left off in 2019, prior to the Covid pandemic sweeping the world, with the 2021 edition contested by wines from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the USA. At the time of writing,
