SOMETIMES what the Pinotage specialists at Beyerskloof do is performed with very little fanfare. Towards the end of 2018, word got out that the Truters had added another label to their portfolio of wines made from Pinotage, either entirely or in part. The newcomer: Beyerskloof Winemakers Reserve – 2016 being the maiden vintage. But no mention of it on
NEW ON THE SA Wine Calendar are the Stellenbosch Fine Wine & Food Festival and the Elgin Wine Fair, but also happening in August are a number of annual events that are as popular as ever: the Free State Wine Show in Bloemfontein, Robertson Slow, the CWG Auction Showcase tastings in Cape Town and Johannesburg as well as the Mercury
“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
THE WINE CELLAR, Wine Menu, Caroline’s, Tops at Spar and the Institute of Cape Wine Masters have lined up tastings aplenty to look forward to in Johannesburg, Stellenbosch, Cape Town and PE this month. It’s also Bastille Festival time in Franschhoek, there’s Soetes & Soup on the menu in the Breedekloof and, having established a fine reputation at The Old
BEST GRAPES in Stellenbosch, matured in small oak barrels, focus on detail. That’s the short story about this “handcrafted masterpiece” in a heavyweight bottle from Stellenview of Devon Valley, Stellenbosch: Kruger Family Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2017, the judges’ favourite red at the 2019 Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show. A longer version of how it came about tells of a
UNUSUAL cultivars, niche varieties, alternative grapes, call them what you may… Certain leading South African cellarmasters are making some lovely wines that orginate in vineyards somewhat different from what most people with a taste for good living know all too well. Some are difficult to pronounce, let alone find on the average winelist or bottle store shelf, however the specialist
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 –
AFTER A devastating fire in 2017 made it impossible to accommodate guests overnight, the refurbished hotel on the Lanzerac Wine Estate in the Jonkershoek Valley of Stellenbosch is being showered with praise. The estate dates back to 1692, the manor house to 1959, and less than a year after reopening it’s been named South Africa’s Leading Wine Country Hotel for
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
MORGENSTER Cab 2014 at R100 a bottle, Croydon Covenant Cab 2017 at R110, Glenelly Glass Collection Cab 2016 at R115 and Maastricht Cab 2017 at R120. These are the best-priced of the top-scoring wines in the 2019 Prescient Cabernet Sauvignon Report compiled by Winemag.co.za. The most glowing assessments went to the Croydon and to a 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon from Rust
A WINE you have to try, if you haven’t already. Once experienced, it’s one of those South African reds that wine lovers want to revisit in one form or another every vintage, at least. Cabernet Franc from Raats! There’s the Raats Dolomite, the flagship Raats Family and the Eden High Density Single Vineyard. And at under R200pb, the Dolomite
WHAT A GREAT year already for leading Cabernet Franc specialist of South Africa Bruwer Raats. Beginning with 5 Star ratings in Platter’s SA Wine Guide for two wines from the 2016 vintage, the Stellenbosch maverick then came top of the class on Winemag.co.za before placing among the Top 6 gold medallists at the 2019 Cab Franc Challenge. Two of the
THERE ARE SOME cellars whose reputations hinge on a single wine. Some have just one flagship. Nothing wrong with that. Actually, there are far too many producers in the Cape with far too many wines in their portfolio. More specialists please. However, you’ve gotta hand it to those wineries that consistently offer more than one of the country’s very best,
THIS IS the first year that the Stellenbosch Wine Festival is held in Cape Town, instead of Stellenbosch! And just how much progress has Riesling from the Cape winelands made over the past 10 or 20 years? There are quite a few top Wine SA events to contemplate going to in April 2019, whether you’re in Nelspruit, Cape Town,
A FRESH fish dish or summer salad cries out for good Sauvignon Blanc as a lunchtime companion. At R210 a bottle, the Family Reserve of Kleine Zalze in Stellenbosch is one of the Top 10 in the South African Wine Classification, but at half the price the winery’s Vineyard Selection offers particularly good value, the 2017 vintage achieving good
THE SORT of place you can fall in love with. Quaint. A wine farm in the traditional sense. Sprawling vineyards. Dirt roads. Classic design. Duck pond and gardens. Organic feel. Welcoming yet somewhat secluded: only open to the public on Fridays and Saturdays (otherwise by appointment), and only four wines, apart from the occasional once-off. Also selling under Kleinood’s Tamboerskloof
WHITES from Tokara and Raats, reds from Haut Espoir, La Bri, Rustenberg, Remhoogte and Tokara, sweets from Nederburg and Boplaas… The top-scoring South African producers in Winemag’s 10 Year Old Report 2019. To quote Christian Eedes, who chaired the three-man panel that included Roland Peens and James Pietersen of Cape Town merchant Wine Cellar: “The 2009 vintage is generally considered
THE MANAGING editor of Wine Enthusiast in the USA, Lauren Buzzeo is a fan of South Africa and a regular visitor to the country. The magazine is one of the most influential in America’s wine trade and has a significant following among wine consumers in the States, but given Buzzeo’s recent post on ‘Where to Find the Best South African
