Steenberg, Graham Beck & Kleine Zalze excel in MCC Challenge
IT WAS ONLY a matter of time… 2019 was when winemaker Elunda Basson took charge of the cellar at the Beck Family Estates’ Steenberg farm in Tokai on the Constantia […]
Laborie Blanc de Blancs 2019 surely MCC value champion 2025
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, both home to one of […]
Exploring bubbly at its best: the findings of ‘A Glass Act’
THE FLUTE is dead… Long live the flute! You could say the same about the coupe… Wine glasses, that is, stemware for sparkling wine specifically. Is there a right and […]
Méthode Ancestrale, Pét Nat… Is it catching on in the Cape?
AA Badenhorst outside Malmesbury in the Swartland was one of the pioneers of South African bubbly made ‘the original way’ invented by the French in the 16th Century. Vondeling of […]
Champion Cap Classique, the ‘Joy of Life’, not yet sold out
AMAZINGLY, well into 2024 – after the December festivities, months since the wine top-scored at the 2023 Veritas Awards to win the Duimpie Bayly Vertex Trophy – the Benguela Cove Cap […]
Sprankel! Babylonstoren top Cap Classique in Platter’s guide
2018 is the eighth vintage of Babylonstoren’s Cap Classique. How time flies! The bottle-fermented sparkler has a good track record and this year could be the best to date. It’s […]
Most highly rated Cap Classique sparkling wines in 2023
THE TOP sparklers from South Africa are applauded around the world, not just locally. Some of them are now commanding prices in line with Champagne, although most still present better […]
Des Dieux does it again at Cap Classique Challenge, and yet…
DOMAINE des Dieux’s win at the 2022 Amorim Cork Cap Classique Challenge was their third, having also been applauded as Best Producer in the 2018 and 2014 editions of the […]
Sparkling delight: white Pinotage taken to whole new level
ON THE FARM Dekkersvlei in Klein Drakenstein, Paarl, Mellasat is off the beaten track. At these vineyards, proprietor Stephen Richardson, cellarmaster Gizelle Coetzee and their team like to do things […]
Vondeling Rurale synonymous with Méthode Ancestrale SA
WHY SPARKLING wine made according to the Méthode Ancestral(e) is different relative to bubbly made the ‘traditional’ way – aka Champagne, Cava and Cap Classique – is that the fermentation […]
How about that! There was wonderful bubbly pre Champagne
ANCESTRAL(E)… Oldest method of making sparkling wine, whereby the wine is bottled during the (single) fermentation process, before the completion of alcoholic fermentation. (Excerpt from Mini Wine Encyclopaedia on Top […]
SA Bubblies of the Year! South Africa’s Most Highly Rated in 2021
SOME AWARDS carry more weight than others, and there’s something to be said for a wine that ticks the boxes for a number of top tasting panels. Over 1500 South […]
