THEY CALL it ‘The Tea Leaf’. On the label, there’s reference to a ‘brew’, and yes, there is a note of tea in the flavour profile. But it’s made from grapes, fermented in tank and barrel, and a rather fine wine at that – a favourite of the Winemag panel and one of the best-value combinations reviewed in their 2020
Read moreTHE Cape of Good Hope range in the portfolio of Anthonij Rupert Wines, Franschhoek, was launched in 2011 as part of proprietor Johann Rupert’s initiative begun in 2006 to help protect the old vines of the Cape as producers of distinctive, terroir-specific expressions of various grape varieties. One of these treasured ‘pieces of history’ comprises bush-vine Semillon on Henk Laing’s
Read moreSOURCED predominantly from one of the oldest vineyards and certainly the oldest Semillon plantings in South Africa, the grapes for Boekenhoutskloof Semillon grow on traditional bush vines that still have their original roots, i.e. contrary to the norm that involves cuttings grafted onto disease- and pest-resistant rootstock. And the roots run deep, conducive to intensely complex, well-structured wines with good ageing
Read moreAS THEY SAY: “The new age of the Swartland commenced in 1997 when [Fairview proprietor] Charles Back stumbled across an old tobacco farm, Klein Amoskuil. Bewildered by the quality of grapes in a region better known for its wheat and rolling fynbos hills, Charles set forth to acquire the farm and study its soils and extreme climate. Hence the Spice Route
Read more1953 was ‘a big year’. Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Tibet became the first people to summit Mount Everest, the highest point on the planet. 1953 saw the crowning of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II. And it was the year that one of South Africa’s first Pinotage vineyards was planted with a view to production on
Read moreTHE 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
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