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
Read moreNO DOUBT affairs of one sort or another will be sparked during Wade Bales’ wine and whisky whirls in South Africa’s capitals. Love is in the air, and it’s that time of year when the Cab Franc producers of the country converge. There are plenty of occasions to contemplate in May 2019, whether you’re in Cape Town, Durban, Franschhoek,
Read moreA 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
Read moreTHE 2018 Uber Value SA Wine Guide was published in December. Four months later, after the annual general price hikes in March and April 2019, many of the wines that received very good reviews – gold medal or better, 90 points or higher – from one or more of the top panels in 2018 were still selling at below the
Read moreWHAT 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
Read moreDIEMERSDAL has a reputation for being a Sauvignon Blanc specialist pushing the envelope, and ‘Winter Ferment’ is the latest innovation in what cellarmaster Thys Louw describes as a New World style. After the harvest in February, the grape juice/must is frozen and kept at -20°C until June before being thawed and fermented in the Cape winter. Unique in South
Read moreTHERE 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,
Read moreASSESSING 77 submissions for their 2019 Alternative Varieties Report, South Africa’s Winemag panel of Christian Eedes (chair), Roland Peens and James Pietersen stopped short of declaring anything to be extraordinary or profound but were impressed, finding 40 wines to be excellent (90 to 92/100) to outstanding (93 to 95/100). Top score went to a Semillon from the Simonsberg-Paarl cellar
Read moreBEST in Constantia, one of the Top 10 in South Africa. Groot Constantia Chardonnay is one of the three most successful wines from the grandest estate on the Cape Peninsula, among the country’s Top 100 Wines Overall and in the Top Wine SA Hall of Fame. Last year the 2017 vintage was a star at the National Wine Challenge and considered Outstanding
Read moreA 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
Read moreTHE QUALITY and interest value of Chardonnay that has never seen the inside of a barrel is streets ahead of what it was at the turn of the century, but still! Who would have predicted that it had risen to the level that it could triumph over wooded masterpieces on the world stage. To quote the organisers of Chardonnay du
Read morePIETER FERREIRA is synonymous with top Cap Classique and Graham Beck, South African sparkling wine made in the traditional way for which the top brands of Reims, Épernay and elsewhere in the Champagne region of France are world-famous. Some refer to him as ‘Bubbles’ Ferreira, cellarmaster at the Graham Beck outfit in Robertson since Day 1, back in 1990. Many
Read moreTHE 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
Read moreSO CONSISTENT! None of South Africa’s other great white blends have been as highly rated for as long. With their Bordeaux-style Sauvignon Blanc Semillon combo, Vergelegen hasn’t missed a beat, so to speak. Anglo American’s flagship white wine from their estate on the slopes of the Helderberg in Somerset West has been a hit since the maiden vintage 2001 right
Read moreTHE MOST successful South African cellar at the 2019 Concours Mondial du Sauvignon was Delaire Graff of Stellenbosch, winning two gold medals (including one for a nine-year-old Sauvignon Blanc!), with Diemersdal of Durbanville, Strandveld outside Elim in Cape Agulhus, Kleine Zalze of Stellenbosch and Kroonpoort Vineyards also securing gold. 1010 wines from 26 countries were assessed by 73 judges from
Read moreA GOOD YEAR it was for South Africa at the 2019 edition of Chardonnay du Monde, an international competition that takes place every year in Burgundy, France. After three days of judging, involving 696 wines from 36 countries assessed by 300 experts from around the world, the 2018 Bon Vallon from De Wetshof Estate in Robertson topped the list of
Read moreCONSUMERS are paying roughly four times the value of a bottle of wine when they order in a South African restaurant. So comments wine e-tailer Ryan Sowray of SaleWine, who has noticed a remarkable growth in people ordering wines to take to restaurants and says this is happening not only in South Africa, but globally. “Instead of going to a
Read moreWHITES 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
Read moreON THE evenings of Wednesday 6 March and Thursday 14 March, there will be walk-around tastings at Caroline’s Fine Wine Cellars in Cape Town showing 25 of the 5 Star laureates in the 2019 edition of Platter’s SA Wine Guide. For the list, see here. At the tutored tastings on the evenings of Thursday 14 March and Wednesday 20 March,
Read moreTHE 2019 Cape Wine Auction at Buitenverwachting in Constantia raised over R14-million, bringing the total raised at the event towards the education of needy children in the winelands of South Africa to around R88-million since the annual sale was first held in 2014. One of the highlights on offer was an item comprising 96 bottles of Pinotage from grapes grown
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