Posts
Genetics… Stellenzicht's 2023 Syrah has a lot going for it
Mike Froud
2025-08-14
JUDGED ‘Best Red Wine Overall' at the 2025 edition of South Africa's premier wine competition, the Trophy Wine Show: the 2023 vintage of the Arenite ...
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High Road, Lynx and Asara lead the charge at ‘Fine Wine Awards'
Mike Froud
2025-08-12
THREE wines top-scored at South Africa's 2025 Fine Wine Awards: the 2020 vintage of The High Road Director's Reserve from Les Sweiden's cellar at Bosman's ...
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Shiraz SA Challenge points to consistency and great value
Mike Froud
2025-08-09
HOW MANY of us thought the days of a really good red at under R100 a bottle were behind us… R99pb for one of the ...
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CWG Auction to present some more of South Africa's best vino
Mike Froud
2025-08-06
SOME OF South Africa's top producers are not members of the Cape Winemakers Guild. Admission is by invitation only, and some who have been invited ...
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Two SA wine showcases, same day, Cape Town & Stellenbosch
Mike Froud
2025-07-30
TOWN HALL in Stellenbosch or Palms Centre in Woodstock, Cape Town. Wine Festival or Wine Party ‘Under the Atrium'. The festival gets underway the day ...
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COY Restaurant for treasured African cuisine, top wine SA
Mike Froud
2025-07-22
SALSIFY at the Roundhouse on the slopes of Table Mountain in Camps Bay, Cape Town, was judged South Africa's No. 1 restaurant at the 2025 ...
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Laborie Blanc de Blancs 2019 surely MCC value champion 2025
Mike Froud
2025-07-20
THE privately-owned Laborie Estate is down the road from Warshay Investment's KWV Emporium – both in Paarl, both Cape wineland destinations in their own right, ...
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Vin de Constance, 1769, Grand Constance and then Gravitas…
Mike Froud
2025-07-15
GRAVITAS, the first of its kind from Constantia Uitsig, a sweet Muscat de Frontignan, vintage 2020, the fourth Constantia dessert wine on the market since ...
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Tokara Reserve Elgin Sauvignon Blanc a perennial favourite
Mike Froud
2025-07-12
UNWOODED, scored 95/100 at the Decanter World Wine Awards and 95 points at the International Wine & Spirit Competition, the 2024 Tokara Reserve Elgin Sauvignon ...
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Definition of a ‘Cape Blend' still far from set in stone
Mike Froud
2025-07-07
HOW WAS THAT! A panel tasting report published in the UK's Decanter magazine focusing on South Africa's ‘Cape red blends' that include Pinotage in the ...
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IWSC top-scorers include SA's Delaire Graff and Graham Beck
Mike Froud
2025-07-03
SOUTH AFRICA'S Delaire Graff, Graham Beck, Nederburg, Tokara, Zevenwacht… In the spotlight yet again with six wines in particular following the 2025 International Wine & ...
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SA Winemag doesn't think much of Pinotage – annual report
Mike Froud
2025-07-02
ONLY FIVE wines scored better than 92 and termed Outstanding, i.e. one rated 93 (low silver?), three 94 (high silver?), one scored 95 and none ...
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Taste South Africa’s finest at Caroline’s Red Wine Review
Mike Froud
2025-07-02
The 2025 edition of Caroline’s annual Red Wine Review, hailed as one of the most prestigious tasting events on the South African wine calendar, will be ...
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Perdeberg Chenin still right up there with the best of them
Mike Froud
2025-06-29
STILL AVAILABLE at the time of writing, costing just a little bit more than it did a month or so earlier when chosen as the ...
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Top wine panels' picks at under R150… under R100 even!
Mike Froud
2025-06-23
HIGHLY recommended, R80 a bottle ex-cellar and still available at the time of writing: Wellington Wines Duke Merlot 2023, one of the winners in the ...
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Stellenbosch Cab prevails again on the international stage
Mike Froud
2025-06-20
THE ANNUAL Decanter World Wine Awards: the biggest wine competition on the planet, held in London. In 2025, well over 16 000 entries from 57 ...
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Cellar Artistry – Pierneef Atelier 2020, Pierneef Sauvignon '24
Mike Froud
2025-06-13
The 2020 and 2024 vintages of La Motte’s Pierneef Syrah-driven blend and Pierneef Sauvignon Blanc respectively are more than cellarmaster Edmund Terblanche’s artistic interpretation of ...
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Top SA wines under R200pb is one thing, but under R100pb?!
Mike Froud
2025-06-12
JUST A COUPLE of days was all it took. By Wednesday 11 June, the top-scoring white blend at South Africa's 2025 Trophy Wine Show was ...
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Cilmor of Worcester THE discovery at Trophy Wine Show
Mike Froud
2025-06-09
OF THE 650 wines judged at South Africa's 2025 Trophy Wine Show, 40 were scored 95+ to earn gold medals (see below), and of those, ...
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SA No. 1 at Syrah du Monde – Babylonstoren Shiraz 2022
Mike Froud
2025-06-07
PRODUCED at Koos Bekker's estate in Paarl using grapes from the farm's vineyards below the Simonsberg, Babylonstoren Shiraz has been one of South Africa's most ...
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Le Grand Best Cab Overall at International Wine Challenge
Mike Froud
2025-05-28
FOR THE FIRST time in five years, South Africa won one of the most prestigious awards at the International Wine Challenge in London, with Le ...
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Paarl and Cederberg cellars strike gold in the Rhône Valley
Mike Froud
2025-05-22
BABYLONSTOREN and Cederberg Wines struck gold at the 2025 (19th) edition of Syrah du Monde, the international competition held in France's Rhône Valley. There were ...
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Top honours in Winemag Chenin Report go to Perdeberg, Paarl
Mike Froud
2025-05-21
THE COMPETITION winners in the South African Winemag's 2024 Prescient Chenin Blanc Report have a history of glowing reviews for their ‘Perdeberg Dry Land Collection ...
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WO Swartland & Ceres triumph in Winemag's Shiraz Report
Mike Froud
2025-05-21
HOW ABOUT THAT! Two wins in succession for the Riebeek Valley Wine Co in the SA Winemag's annual Prescient Shiraz Report, with the Riebeek-Kasteel winery's ...
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Capensis Kliphuis… Stellenbosch Chardonnay showcase of note
Mike Froud
2025-05-20
THE GOOD people of Capensis don't have their own winery, and would rather not say where it is that they're renting cellar space. But does ...
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Sophisticated, classy wine-tasting in the Constantia Valley
Mike Froud
2025-05-12
IT'S ONE OF the most chic venues in South Africa's Cape winelands – a classy wine-tasting lounge, bar and terrace as well as a bistro ...
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Decanter panel raves about ‘stellar' SA Chardonnay
Mike Froud
2025-05-10
“THEY STOOD toe-to-toe with Hawke's Bay and Margaret River [of Australia] and all but the finest Burgundy [of France]”. High praise indeed from the panel ...
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South Africa ranked eighth among top wine producers – OIV
Mike Froud
2025-04-17
THE FOLLOWING are among the statistics presented by the International Organisation of Vine & Wine in the OIV's 2025 report on the state of the ...
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L'Avenir Grand Pinotage absolute favourite at G&G Challenge
Mike Froud
2025-04-07
HOW ABOUT THAT! First, that the Pinotage Association put the Grand Pinotage “project” to the test in a blind tasting of the 2019 vintage conducted ...
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Best Bottles from SA Wine Farms with Highly Rated Restaurants
Mike Froud
2025-04-06
SO THE RESTAURANT critics have pronounced on the top farms to lunch or dine at in the Cape, among the vines, but which wines from ...
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