Best Value SA Wine Champs 2025 – Top-Rated @ Under R100
FAIR AND SQUARE. No punches pulled… The trouble with best value competitions specifically for wines below a particular price ceiling concerns the preconceptions and bias associated with judging such categories, […]
Can’t talk SA Chenin without a punt for Stellenrust and FMC
THE WINNERS of South Africa’s 2025 Chenin Blanc Top 10 Challenge – convened by the Chenin Blanc Association and sponsored by Standard Bank – brought to 33 the various expressions […]
Shiraz SA Challenge points to consistency and great value
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 Top 12 in the 2025 […]
Definition of a ‘Cape Blend’ still far from set in stone
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 mix makes no mention of […]
Stellenbosch dominates Chenin Blanc Challenge once again
BESIDES the incredible achievement of Stellenrust, who won three of the Top 10 awards for the second year in succession, the results of the 2024 Standard Bank Chenin Blanc Challenge […]
South Africa punches above its weight at Syrah Masters
REPORTING on the 2024 Global Syrah Masters for The Drinks Business publication in London, Master of Wine Patricia Stefanowicz compared the Shiraz plantings of France, at about 70 000ha, to Australia’s […]
Best of The Best Under R250pb – 2024 SA Wine Classification
LESS THAN R100 a bottle for one of the most consistently highly rated wines over the past 10 years might seem impossible, and yet… While the majority of the 132 […]
GFW Challenge winners include new Paarl star and a donkey…
BEFORE being honoured with a trophy at the Global Fine Wine Challenge in Sydney, Australia, Tokara’s 2020 Director’s Reserve White blend was a 95-pointer at Decanter’s World Wine Awards in […]
5 scored 98 in Platter’s guide: 3 Chenins, 1 Pinotage, 1 Shiraz
THERE are SIX producers in various parts of the Cape winelands who are most applauded in the 2024 edition of Platter’s South African Wine Guide. Congratulations to The Sadie Family […]
Mhudi among triumphant Cape wines at Global Chenin Masters
NEW ON the radar. Out of the blue, as it were… The Rangaka family’s M’hudi wine business on their farm in Stellenbosch was founded nearly 20 years ago, but it’s […]
Talk about a show of dominance at the Chenin Blanc Challenge
THEY MAKE at least half a dozen Chenins at the Stellenrust winery in the Helderberg and another at their boutique ArtiSons cellar in Bottelary. Even the ‘standard’ version (currently R89pb) […]
Top Chenin Blanc SA over past six months to date – June 2023
AS THE 2023 Chenin Safari was winding down, with the final leg of the six-week challenge just around the bend, who would be strutting their stuff at the festival in […]
