Tag Archives: Flagstone

Top Pinotage and Cape Blends revisited – up close and personal

THE 2023 Absa Top 10 Pinotage and Perold Cape Blend awards have been reported on already, but for many wine lovers it’s not enough to know what the winning wines were. “Comparing favourites is one thing, but tell us where they come from? What do they taste like? Exactly who made them?” Questions answered: BEESLAAR PINOTAGE 2019 WO Stellenbosch. 25-year-old

Read more

Six Cape Blend winners in a category that’s limping along

HOW MUCH longer will it take for the concept of a ‘Cape Blend’ to gain traction, one wonders. Some are really good, yet more than a decade after South Africa’s inaugural Perold competition for Pinotage-led combos there were only 30 entries in the 2023 edition – less than the number entered back in 2011 – and just 17 with track

Read more

Under R150 and Classified – great value wine year after year

MANY STOPPED paying attention to the Michelangelo Awards when it was pointed out that, like the South African Young Wine Show, the entries include tank- and barrel-samples, i.e. wines that are not market-ready when they are judged and which could change significantly by the time they go on sale. It’s possible that these competition results and bottle stickers might sometimes

Read more

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) has won at the Standard Bank Chenin Blanc Challenge before and is one of three Stellenrust wines with such good reviews over the years as to be included among the

Read more

Podlashuk Shiraz trophy goes to Pinot specialist Creation …

THE RESULTS of the 2023 Shiraz SA Challenge provided plenty of talking points. For example: Flagstone of the Strand/Somerset West grabbed two awards, one for a ‘Dark Horse’ with one of the best track records in the category and the other for a ‘Velvet’ blend that costs what you might think with a name like that. The achievement by De

Read more

Very best at under R150 a bottle – according to the experts

THE VERY BEST wines of South Africa at under 150 rand a bottle as reviewed by the top panels of experts locally and internationally in 2022. Rated 95 points or higher. There are even a few platinum award winners and trophy laureates among these recommendations, and those highlighted in RED are either included in the 2022 SA Wine Classification, such

Read more

Some Veritas champs recommended by more than one panel …

OF THE 95 wines judged worthy of double gold medals at South Africa’s 2022 Veritas Awards, there are 19 standouts on the basis of various tasting results… 95 is a big number, and the organisers won’t publish the scores, which range from 93 to 100, i.e. they tell the respective wine producers who entered the wines, but they won’t tell

Read more

Under R100 for a bottle of one of the Top 10 Pinotage!

GO PULPIT ROCK! At just R90pb, the Brink Family Vineyards 2019 from the Pulpit Rock winery in Riebeek West is one of the standouts among the 2022 Absa Top 10 Pinotage Award winners. Windmeul of Paarl is the closest contender in terms of ‘best bang for your buck’ – R150pb for their 2019 Reserve but a track record impressive enough

Read more

Flagstone Cape Blend named NWC Red Wine of the Year

A PINOTAGE-BASED red blend from the Flagstone winery in Somerset West, a Sauvignon Blanc from Paul Cluver in Elgin, a Cape Port from De Krans in Calitzdorp and the flagship Cap Classique sparkler from Graham Beck in Robertson. The four Wines of the Year at South Africa’s 2022 National Wine Challenge, and the producers were chuffed: “We are over the

Read more

Kleine Zalze and Spier do it again in Sauvignon Blanc SA Top 10

  “THIS YEAR will be remembered as a world-class Top 10,” said Kleine Zalze winemaker RJ Botha, chairman of Sauvignon Blanc South Africa. There were 157 wines entered by 96 producers in the 2021 edition of the association’s competition, with four of the winning wines having achieved the feat before – from Kleine Zalze and Spier of Stellenbosch, Nitida of

Read more

2021 Cape Blend Competition winners no strangers to the podium

  WITH THEIR achievements in the 2021 edition of the Perold Absa Cape Blend Competition, the five winners showed once again how consistently good their wines are as combos with Pinotage being the leading component comprising between 30% and 70%. Since the competition was first held by the Pinotage Association in 2011, KWV has now won trophies with seven vintages,

Read more

Top 10 competition showcases consistency of leading Pinotages

IS IT JUST a figment of the imagination or does that bottle of Stellenbosch 1679 stand out front and foremost among the 2021 Absa Top 10? Picture (above) courtesy of the Pinotage Association, convener of the competition… Certainly the maiden vintage of the Pinotage flagship from Koelenhof Winery has attracted quite a bit of attention during the year, having also earned

Read more

And then there were 20… The 2021 Top 10 Pinotage Competition Finalists

IN A SOMEWHAT quiet build-up, the names of the finalists in the Pinotage Association’s 2021 Absa Top 10 competition were disclosed via social media without so much as a tweet! Twenty wines from 16 producers – Beeslaar, Beyerskloof, Diemersdal and Rijk’s each making the cut with two of their beauties among the many entries from various parts of the Cape winelands.

Read more

Showcasing “superior” Syrah from the foot of Africa – Shiraz SA

THE ONLINE award presentation was a rather dumbed-down affair, not without technical hiccups, but the panel of judges for the 2021 Challenge convened by the industry association Shiraz SA was strong on experience. Among the selectors were Cape Wine Masters Andy Roediger (chair for the ninth year) and Paul Benadé, cellarmasters Frans Smit (Spier) and Richard Kershaw MW, as well

Read more

Koelenhof Legacy is Red Wine of the Year at SA National Wine Challenge

THERE WERE A NUMBER of familiar labels among the ‘Best in Class’ and ‘Wine of the Year’ laureates that shone in the 2021 SA National Wine Challenge, but nobody could have anticipated the identity of the overall red wine champion. A newcomer from the Koelenhof Winery, The Legacy 2017 is the first (Cab-led) red blend in the premium ‘Stellenbosch 1679’

Read more

Ultra Value from Eagle’s Cliff, Flagstone, Koelenhof, McGregor, Perdeberg

THERE WERE 320 entries in South Africa’s 2020 Ultra Value Wine Challenge. 73 won silver, 64 won gold, 23 wines won double gold and of these 10 were lauded as the most highly rated – see below. Ultra Value Red Wine of the Year: Pandora’s Box The Persian Connection Shiraz NV, from Nicholson Smith Agencies. Ultra Value White Wine of

Read more

Mosaic Top 5 panel chuffed with best SA Pinot Noir, but hardly ecstatic

ANOTHER interesting line-up of wines from that ‘heartbreak grape’. To think that there are so many Pinot Noir producers in South Africa! And kudos to Elgin-based Master of Wine Richard Kershaw, the only winemaker to place among the winners of both the inaugural Top 5 competition associated with the country’s Pinot Noir Association and that organised by Winemag.co.za which involved the

Read more

Shiraz Challenge winners hail from 12 different corners of the Cape

DUE TO lockdown restrictions imposed on local drinks industry players in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, announcing the 2020 Shiraz SA Challenge results was a sombre occasion conducted online without the winners in attendance. A virtually dry celebration! The judging, held over four days at Nederburg in Paarl, was chaired by Cape Wine Master Andy Roediger, with the panellists

Read more

South Africa’s Chenin success story inspiring winemakers worldwide

  WHAT a lovely collection of stories and images associated with the 2019 edition of the Standard Bank Chenin Blanc Top 10 Challenge! A new label on David Nieuwoudt’s Five Generations. Classical music playing to the vines and wines at Wendy Appelbaum’s DeMorgenzon. A tribute to Cape Town’s company gardens (artwork on back label). A river analogy from Flagstone. A

Read more

Babylonstoren and Driehoek win again and again at Shiraz SA Challenge

THERE were 207 entries in the 2019 Shiraz SA Challenge, including 36 Shiraz-driven blends. The judges were Cape Wine Masters Andy Roediger (panel chair) and Elsie Pells, cellarmasters Charles Hopkins (De Grendel) and Edmund Terblanche (La Motte), wine writer/brand manager Samarie Smith (Benguela Cove), international judge Claus Fischer of Germany (Mundus Vini), wine consultant Jeanne-Mari de Villiers (VinJeanne) and Cape

Read more
1 2