FOR AN UPDATE of all the organic wines produced in South Africa that are officially certified as such, click here. Below are those from the Cape that received good to very good reviews from the top panels of experts in 2023. There are numerous winemakers and viticulturists who adhere to organic or biodynamic methods in the vineyard and cellar but
CHOICES CHOICES CHOICES… Tickets for ‘Wine on the Water’ in St Francis Bay are very hard to come by and those to the Stellenbosch Street Soirees are selling out fast. Interesting that the cellars exhibiting at Cape Town Fresh are mostly from outside CTN, with various districts all over the winelands represented. The Wellington festival will have somewhat of a
ODDLY ENOUGH, not all of the cellars in Wellington are members of the local wine route. Not officially, that is. For example, Mischa Estate to the north and Napier Vineyards on the Bainskloof Road to the east are not part of the ‘Go Wellington‘ movement. Nor is Roodekrantz north-west of the town, though perhaps they’re considered more Swartland than Wellington.
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
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
COGNAC, ARMAGNAC, CAPE BRANDY… An acquired taste, some would argue. Thrice as strong as most red and white wines. Aqua vitae, the water of life! Distilled wine, in basic terms, but in its finest form a wonderful spirit savoured in sips. And those bottles… Medicine for the soul! Originating in the vineyards, as they do, the brandies of South Africa
EVEN WHEN IT comes to the Top 100 Cellars on the various wine routes of South Africa, not all of them are open to the public for tastings and sales all week, all weekend, i.e. including Sundays. See below for those that are, what their Sunday trading hours are plus links to the various destinations should you wish to make
THERE WERE A NUMBER of familiar labels among the ‘Best in Class’ and ‘Wine of the Year’ laureates that shone in the 2021 SA National Wine Challenge, but nobody could have anticipated the identity of the overall red wine champion. A newcomer from the Koelenhof Winery, The Legacy 2017 is the first (Cab-led) red blend in the premium ‘Stellenbosch 1679’
PINOTAGE is the red that they are best known for, although there’s also a Malbec in the Diemersfontein Carpe Diem Reserve range of “world-class, innovative wines” from David Sonnenberg’s estate in Wellington. Indeed, the Carpe Diem Pinotage has a distinguished track record, ranking among South Africa’s Top 100 wines over the past decade, with Carpe Diem Malbec also included in the
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
WHO COULD possibly argue with the Pinotage Association when they promote South Africa’s red wine ‘calling card’ with biltong as a ‘perfect pairing’. What’s not to like! And having been behind a number of Pinotage & Biltong Festivals in Paarl and elsewhere in the country over the years, the Association stepped things up a notch in 2019 with the
A MAGICAL place. At the end of a dirt track, up against one of the Hawequa mountains. Rustic, at one with nature, farm animals, oak trees, metal sculpture of a maiden, gurgling stream and a rock pool, spirits aplenty and some secrets no doubt… The Upland Organic Estate is where the first school in Wellington was located a couple
WHERE TO EAT along the Wellington Wine Route, on a farm, among the vines? And which wines to seek out, what the panels of experts have recommended recently? For lunch, head to Diemersfontein, where their restaurant was revamped and re-opened earlier this year as Aan Tafel (pictured above), where the signature dishes include boerewors and burgers, bunny chow, curries
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
THE BOSMAN’S Optenhorst Vineyard, ‘perched on top of a hill’ in the Bovlei Valley of Wellington, was last planted in 1952. Which makes it home to some of THE oldest vines in South Africa (see here). Chenin Blanc! And from it comes one the country’s best quality and most interesting wines: the 2010 vintage judged one of the Top 100
BELOW are the top Cabernet Sauvignon producers in South Africa over the past 10 years, those with the best track records spanning 2008 to 2017, presented according to where you’ll find their tasting rooms on the various wine routes. For the 2018 SA Cabernet Sauvignon Classification, see here, and for the contact info and addresses of those outfits that can be visited
WHAT’S not to like about Douglas Green Chardonnay 2017? Maybe that you can’t buy it from the cellar while on the Wellington wine route, only from a supermarket. Or perhaps that there’s no reference on the label to where the grapes come from: ‘Western Cape’ isn’t helpful; WO Robertson is a nice-to-know. Otherwise all good: latest of the good reviews from
