AT LAST COUNT, the number of visitors to Groot Constantia stood at around 450 000 a year. It’s been the most popular wine farm in South Africa’s Cape winelands for some time, which is not to be confused with wine sales – gone are the days when ‘Joe Soap’ and ‘the man in the street’ would queue up at the
Read moreCONSTANTIA GLEN. Down the main road from the Constantia Nek traffic circle for those travelling via Hout Bay or Bishop’s Court / Newlands in Cape Town. Home to some of South Africa’s most highly rated blends – white and red – over the past 10 years, as well as a decent restaurant. The Constantia Glen TWO white blend (R100pg) is
Read moreTHESE ARE the red blends from South Africa’s winelands that most impressed the top panels internationally in 2023 to date, with by far the majority of them – those highlighted in red – included in the SA Wine Classification showcasing good track records over the past 10 years. Many of these producers have been pulling it off virtually vintage after
Read moreTHEY CAN’T say with absolute certainty whether it was made in 1791 or 1890, but “due to the colour and aromas” it’s believed to be the former. The unlabelled, handblown bottle is small, half a standard 750ml measure of ‘Constantia Sweet’, acquired by Stellenbosch Farmers’ Winery (now Heineken Beverages) at a London auction in 1974. Recently resealed by Amorim Cork
Read moreALMOST EVERYBODY who’s anybody in the vineyards of Constantia was on the billboard of exhibitors expected to be serving their Sauvignon to wine lovers at Workshop 47 in Rosebank JHB in the first of two evening events this May. The notable no-show being Constantia Uitsig, an estate that’s not a member of the local wine route although one of THE
Read moreJUST DAYS after the 2022 Eat Out Woolworths Restaurant Awards panel chair Abigail Donnelly announced their choice of the top-rated tables in South Africa, fellow food writer Jenny Handley went public with her panel’s preferences in the 2023 JHP Gourmet Guide. The Eat Out awards will be presented on 20 November, but we’ve been told the names of 42 restaurants
Read moreJUNE 2022: Richard Kershaw’s GPS Series Cape South Coast Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2020 is celebrated as one of the most highly rated wines at the International Wine & Spirit Competition in London. Two months later: the same beauty from the Master of Wine’s cellar in Elgin is the critics’ favourite in Winemag’s annual Prescient Sauvignon Blanc Report. The only other wine
Read moreEVEN WHEN IT comes to the Top 100 Cellars on the various wine routes of South Africa, not all of them are open to the public for tastings and sales all week, all weekend, i.e. including Sundays. See below for those that are, what their Sunday trading hours are plus links to the various destinations should you wish to make
Read moreSOME STRUGGLE to get their heads around the law that allows for wines from Durbanville being labelled as Capetonian. Some feel that even Cape Point and Kommetjie are too far from the Mother City to be considered part of Cape Town. Perhaps we could agree that the wineries in the vicinity of Table Mountain have something in common – including
Read moreTHERE WERE 125 entries from various parts of the South African winelands submitted for Winemag’s 2021 Prescient Sauvignon Blanc Report. Most were unwooded, some were wooded and some comprised blends of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon (albeit that this isn’t always disclosed on the labels). And there were plenty that delighted the panel of tasters including Winemag editor Christian Eedes (chair),
Read moreAMAZING! They’d never get away with it in the modern era: different bottles, different-looking labels, but same wine, same vintage. Things were so different back then. Apparently not all Grand Constance / Groot Constantia wine of the 1800s was bottled at source. It was not uncommon for this sweet nectar to be shipped from the Cape to England and Europe
Read moreRECORDS APLENTY! There were five bottles up for grabs at the Strauss & Co Fine Wine Auction held in Johannesburg on 14 September 2021. All South African wines, ranging from a 34-year-old dessert to one from a barrel first filled in 1800 – some buyers in the room, some bidding online and others phoning through. Never before had anybody paid
Read moreCONSTANTIA Fresh dinners rather than a bash on the lawn. A Chenin Blanc picnic in Stellenbosch instead of a party on the beach in Cape Town. Then some belated tastings of 2020 Veritas award winners, the first of them to take place in Paarl. But there’s more! A different kind of sparkling wine festival in Franschhoek, food and wine affairs
Read moreWITH THE 2020 addition of Chris Alheit and David Sadie, membership of the Cape Winemakers Guild (CWG) rose to 46 producers, whose names and those of the places they work at make for a list that in itself is a useful guide to much of the best from South Africa’s wine cellars. You only get to be on this list
Read moreTHE 2020 National Wine Challenge of South Africa – a.k.a. Robin von Holdt’s Top 100 Wines – attracted “well over 500” entries, down on previous years but not bad given the lockdown(s) due to Covid-19. The coronavirus pandemic resulted in the judges all being locally based, with Greg Sherwood MW unable to fly out from the UK. Ginette de Fleuriot
Read moreWHERE 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
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 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
Read moreDARN! It was sad to hear that the Wine & Bubbly Festival scheduled to take place on the beach at Plettenberg Bay in March had been cancelled due to ‘late withdrawal of the sponsorship’ – though good to read that Plett Tourism and Plett Winelands ‘will return with another world-class experience in 2020’. Instead then, the main focus of attention in
Read morePRETTY handy if you’re going wine-tasting or shopping on one of Cape Town’s wonderful wine routes, the following are those reds, whites and sweets with the very best track records from the wineries of Constantia, Durbanville and elsewhere in the city according to the SA Wine & Cellar Classification. • For the full Cape Town Wine Classification, click here. •
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