CONTENDERS for the title of SA Wine of the Year? Winery of the Year? Winemaker of the Year? Clearly some awards and ratings count more than others. Then again, it says a lot when a wine wows more than one panel of experts – three or four even. Cederberg? Constantia Glen? Stellenrust? De Grendel? Or any of the other
TROPHY FOR the most Outstanding Wine Producer at the 2019 International Wine & Spirit Competition and the most successful in the history of the event, going back to 1969. An impressive ‘feather in the cap’ for Kanonkop, Stellenbosch and the Cape winelands in general, it was one of the highlights during an awards banquet at the Guildhall in London end-November,
HUMBLE, respect for the land, with a sense of place, small scale, a family affair. He is the winemaker, she is the manager, their children share their names with the vineyards, and the wines are good, very good. No bells and whistles at this boutique outfit in the middle of the Hemel-en-Aarde – above the Valley proper, below the
WHO COULD possibly argue with the Pinotage Association when they promote South Africa’s red wine ‘calling card’ with biltong as a ‘perfect pairing’. What’s not to like! And having been behind a number of Pinotage & Biltong Festivals in Paarl and elsewhere in the country over the years, the Association stepped things up a notch in 2019 with the
AFTER a bidding period lasting just over a week, the highest prices fetched for South African beauties at the inaugural Fine Wine Online Auction conducted by Strauss & Co in collaboration with merchant Wine Cellar and sommelier Higgo Jacobs were for the following: from Paarl cellars, KWV Tawny Port 1939, Veenwouden Classic 1993 and 1997 (red blend); from Somerset
R85 MILLION for Quoin Rock in 2012. R90m and R80m for Uitkyk and Warwick in 2018. R94m for Knorhoek in 2019. All four on the Simonsberg in Stellenbosch. What would Kanonkop be valued at? It wasn’t that long ago that Constantia Uitsig sold for R175m, and before that Klein Constantia for R198m, with Boschendal of Franschhoek holding the national record
A MAGICAL place. At the end of a dirt track, up against one of the Hawequa mountains. Rustic, at one with nature, farm animals, oak trees, metal sculpture of a maiden, gurgling stream and a rock pool, spirits aplenty and some secrets no doubt… The Upland Organic Estate is where the first school in Wellington was located a couple
“DO YOU KNOW how hard it is to sell a bottle of Viognier in South Africa,” said the fellow behind the counter of the neighbourhood wine shop, explaining why they hardly ever stocked it. “Not any more,” said the customer, who’d been enquiring about the Ridgeback, hunting for the 2018 vintage, in vain. “Yeah, heard it just got 5
NOT THAT the Royals’ way of doing things isn’t sometimes over the top – or their behaviour beyond reproach – but when they lay it on, they lay it on, in style! One wonders how many wine estates can boast a family tree that goes back so far, or with as much you-know-what sewn in! For more of South
WHO WAS CELEBRATING most after the 2019 Eat Out Mercedes-Benz Restaurant Awards? Chef James Gaag of La Colombe at Silvermist Estate in Constantia, voted the top restaurant in South Africa, Bertus Basson of Eike and Overture at Hidden Valley in Stellenbosch who was judged Chef of the Year, or Ivor Jones of Chefs Warehouse at Beau Constantia who was considered No. 1
A SIGN OF THE TIMES! You can no longer find a really good Cap Classique bubbly at under R100 a bottle and it won’t be long before the same applies to various other categories – white and red, dry and sweet. In the 2020 edition of Platter’s South African Wine Guide published this month, around 350 wines were in the
LONG GONE are the days when a 5 Star rating was the ultimate accolade in Platter’s South African Wine guide, one of the very few publications in the world of wine still carrying stars to signify levels of distinction. The book and the online platform now also include scores according to a 100-point system but the powers that be can’t
PLATTER’S South African Wine Guide 2020 includes 5 Star ratings for 125 “classics” from across the country’s winelands – all scored 95+ on a 100-point scale. 5 STAR LAUREATES AA Badenhorst Dassiekop Steen 2018 AA Badenhorst Kelder Steen 2018 Alheit Magnetic North Chenin Blanc 2018 Anthonij Rupert Cabernet Franc 2013 Cape of Good Hope Laing Groendruif 2016 (Semillon, Anthonij
BIG INVESTMENT, considered approach, dogged determination… These don’t always guarantee success in the wine business but the owner and manager of Quoin Rock Estate, Ukrainian businessman Vitaly Gaiduk and his son Denis, who lives in South Africa, have set the stage, while of the performers, the Quoin Rock and Namysto collections have been praised around the globe. Most applauded has
AFTER the major Joburg wine fest that is WineX, comes a new Chenin celebration at the Perdeberg cellar in Paarl and a party of note in Riebeek Kasteel. The Veritas roadshow travels to Durban before ending in PE, while the Tops at Spar Wine Show will put up the tent in East London, then Nelspruit. Those up for a road
WHERE TO EAT on the Constantia Wine Route, on a farm, among the vines? And which wines to seek out, what has been highly recommended by the panels of experts? For lunch, you could consider the new venues: Steenberg’s Tryn (main dining area pictured above) has various general indoor, outdoor and private fine-dining spaces, a bar and a menu
IT’S DIFFICULT to accept that of South Africa’s Top 30 restaurants in 2019, according to the critics and followers of the Eat Out restaurant guide, only five are located outside Cape Town and the surrounding winelands! Only one in Johannesburg? Only one in Durban? None in Bloemfontein, nor in Port Elizabeth? None at the country’s nature conservancies, game reserves, resorts? Oh
ESTABLISHED as the Nederburg Auction, Paarl, it was ‘reinvented’ in 2019 as the Cape Fine & Rare Wine Auction, held over two days in October at the Rupert Museum, Stellenbosch, with Charlie Foley of British auction house Christie’s wielding the gavel. Sponsored by Libertas Vineyards & Estates of Distell, the October sale is billed as one of the most
THE ANNUAL Robertson Wine Valley’s winter wine festival has been cancelled… Having been enjoyed by revellers for the past 17 years, the Wacky Wine Weekend will not take place again! “It is a bitter-sweet decision, but it was time,” said Robertson Wine Route manager Beatrix Galloway. Apparently the festival was giving the wines of Robertson a bad name [busloads of
AS THE UPWARD pressure on wine prices increases, savvy bargain hunters know to look to top cellars’ second labels, up-and-coming producers outside the premier league, and cellars buying in grapes from far and wide, not constrained by the rules and regulations of ‘estate wine’ legislation. This was the focus in an article recently published by Independent Media’s Personal Finance magazine –
