AVON is the name of Isak Visagie’s farm on the slopes of the Olifantsberg in the Breedekloof Valley where uniWines of Rawsonville sources the Clairette Blanche grapes for one of their old vine projects, an experimental wine in the DaschBosch range. The farm had been planted mainly to Palomino (Frans druif) and Muscat d’Alexandrie (Hanepoot). It was in 1977 that
ALSO KNOWN as Alvarinho in Spain and Portugal where it is used to make white wines including Vinho Verde, the Albariño grape was used for the first time in South Africa at Newton Johnson Vineyards in the Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley outside Hermanus. Maiden vintage: 2015. Though Pinot Noir specialists, the family’s expertise has long extended to Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc,
THE FIRST outright winner of South Africa’s Top 10 Merlot Competition, Rainbow’s End in Banghoek on the Pniel side of Stellenbosch en route to Franschhoek, is in a beautiful corner of the Cape winelands, with the tasting room and lookout deck positioned on a hill to take full advantage of the view. For some time now, the estate up a
THERE ARE some wines of South Africa that are positioned as not quite top draw but very good, worthy of premium pricing. Better than ‘second labels’ such as Kadette in the case of Kanonkop, Jordan’s Chameleon, DMZ from DeMorgenzon, Glenelly’s Glass Collection, Kloof from Mullineux, Secateurs from AA Badenhorst, First Sighting from Strandveld… No, there are wines which we’re told
THE TOP South African wine events taking place from July through August 2023 begin with a focus on Portuguese varieties and styles in Stellenbosch and wind up to the Cape Winemakers Guild Showcase tastings at the International Convention Centre in Cape Town and the Nedbank Atrium in Johannesburg. Event highlights in July include Caroline’s Red Wine Review at the V&A
“IF BABOONS could talk, they’d tell you that Chardonnay is their favourite fruit,” says Meyer Joubert, cellarmaster and viticulturist at Joubert-Tradauw outside Barrydale in the Klein Karoo. The baboons (and the birds) present a challenge he could do without, but what he manages to keep from them makes for wine under his own label as well as those of producers
THE BORDEAUX grape variety Carménère is extremely scarce in South Africa – less than 10ha of vines in total, of which there is less than a couple of hectares at the Doornbosch farm outside Bonnievale in the Robertson district, home of the Smuts family and their Lozärn range of wines. The first block of their Carménère was planted less than
“A fun, engaging and educational way to learn…” That’s how David Clarke of Ex Animo describes his wine school – a new extension to his boutique-wine business in Woodstock, Cape Town – that will kick off in July with a course about ‘The Basics of South African Wine’. Entertaining, no official acreditation, no exams, four midweek evening sessions. “By the
STELLENBOSCH Vineyards on the Lynedoch side of town are one of the very few producers of wine made from Therona grapes, grown only in South Africa. The variety was largely thanks to the late Prof Christiaan Orffer of Stellenbosch University, who in the 1950s crossed Crouchen Blanc with Chenin Blanc – the objective being to raise the standard of Chenin
ASSOCIATED with the Catalonia region surrounding the city of Barcelona in northeastern Spain as well as the Languedoc in southern France, the black grape variety Lledoner Pelut (aka Garnacha) is a mutation of Grenache Noir. Planted in South Africa for the first time at Kloovenburg outside the Swartland town of Riebeek Kasteel, it was used to make wine for the
SHIRAZ from South Africa’s Hartenberg, Kleine Zalze and Cederberg cellars were among the top gold medallists at the international Syrah du Monde 2023. Contested by 20 countries, the competition takes place in Ampuis, a town in the Rhône region of France, where 80 of the 241 wines assessed during the panel tastings earned gold (34) and silver (46) medals. Australian
SOME WINES are pretty much ‘one of a kind’, almost incomparable. Some of them from the Cape winelands… Nero is the first and only South African wine to be made from the red/black grape Nero d’ Avola, an Italian variety named after the town of Avola in Sicily, grown among the foothills of volcanoes and now also on Bosman Family
SOME WINES are pretty much ‘one of a kind’, almost incomparable. Some of them from the Cape winelands… In South Africa, Palomino grapes are/were used mainly for the production of Sherry and Sherry-styled wines. “Very few of these vineyards remain,” reflects Adi Badenhorst of the family wine business AA Badenhorst on the farm Kalmoesfontein among the Paardeberg foothills outside Malmesbury.
ALMOST EVERYBODY who’s anybody in the vineyards of Constantia was on the billboard of exhibitors expected to be serving their Sauvignon to wine lovers at Workshop 47 in Rosebank JHB in the first of two evening events this May. The notable no-show being Constantia Uitsig, an estate that’s not a member of the local wine route although one of THE
THERE WERE only 20 cases of the single-block, single-barrel Cab Franc Challenge winner made available for purchase after results of the 2023 edition of the competition were announced in Stellenbosch. As for the rest of the Anthology, 2020 vintage, “we’ll be drinking to celebrate,” said the producers. “Lucky us.” Convenor Bjorn van Oort let on that “just 0.33 points” separated
JUST R100 to taste SEVEN current releases at one of THE leading wine estates in South Africa. In fact, there’s no charge to sample these wines if you’re buying a bottle to take home, with a second-label red going for just R135pb, the 2023 rosé less than R100. The top wines from this cellar sell for over R500pb, with the
SOUTH AFRICA’S wine bars of note! Are there any others that make the cut? Where else across the length and breadth of South Africa… other than at the tasting rooms on the farms themselves… where else is wine the main focus of attention when it comes to what’s in your glass? Places that are unique in their raison d’être, where
BACK IN 2012, the 2010 vintage of The Bernard Series Bush Vine Pinotage in DGB’s Bellingham portfolio earned a trophy at the Decanter World Wine Awards, UK. In 2014, the 2013 vintage was a winner in the Pinotage Association’s Top 10 Competition, Cape winelands. Not long into 2023, the 2019 vintage earned grand gold and was judged best South African
THE WINE is “herbaceous” and a whole lot more according to the judges who liked it so much that a trophy was awarded to the producers Villiera for best wooded Sauvignon Blanc on show – the international Concours Mondial du Sauvignon 2023, a competition based in Brussels, with the tasting panels gathered in Franschhoek (the first time outside Europe in
JUST a generation ago, the prices of reds and whites at a South African wine farm were very seldom less than what they sold for at wine shops in the towns nearby. Only a few winery proprietors would risk the wrath of retailers who might well refuse to stock the product of any supplier who dared to undercut them. Times
