Tag Archives: KWV

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 Best of The Best in the 2024 South African Wine Classification are priced at over R350 a bottle with 40+ over R500pb, there are 22 at under R250 (see below),

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Most highly rated Cap Classique sparkling wines in 2023

THE TOP sparklers from South Africa are applauded around the world, not just locally. Some of them are now commanding prices in line with Champagne, although most still present better value for money. These are the country’s bottle-fermented bubblies most highly rated by the top panels internationally in 2023 to date, and highlighted in red are those included in the SA

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What does it mean to win double gold at the Veritas Awards?

TO WIN the trophy for top-scoring wine at the Veritas Awards is a fairly big deal! In 2023, there were 1247 entries (including spirits) in what is the biggest, longest-running SA wine competition. Of these, 81 were considered worthy of a double gold medal by panels of local and international judges, 70 in total, with double gold being the top

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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

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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

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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

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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

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The most applauded Cap Classique sparkling wine in 2023

SHINING in a line-up of 157 sparklers on the tasting bench at the 2023 Amorim Cap Classique Challenge, the 2017 vintage of KWV’s Laborie Blanc de Blancs was judged the best dry bottle-fermented wine made exclusively from Chardonnay and the best wine overall. This on top of the Paarl bubbly having been chosen as Best Cap Classique at the Trophy

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Top contenders for best value wine in 2023 – January to June

IT’S AMAZING that there are any highly rated wines available at under R100 a bottle these days, and yet… MOST HIGHLY RATED < R100 Bon Courage Unwooded Chardonnay 2022 Gold Medal at Trophy Wine Show (SA) R83pb ex-cellar, Robertson KWV Cathedral Cellar Sauvignon Blanc 2022 Gold Medal at Trophy Wine Show (SA) R99PB ex-cellar, Paarl Land’s End Cape South Coast

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Cederberg Five Generations Cab declared Mondial ‘Revelation’

CONCOURS MONDIAL is based in Brussels, Belgium, however the mammoth competition is staged in various locations with the different types of wine judged at different times of the year. In May 2023, over 300 industry experts from around the world converged on the coastal town of Porec in western Croatia to assess over 7500 red and white wines from nearly

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Top SA Sauvignon Blanc producers over the past 12 months

WITH SO MUCH hype around Sauvignon Blanc during the first quarter of 2023 and extending into May with many South African wine producers engaged in Sauvignon Blanc Day/Weekend celebrations, what better time to reflect on the top expressions from the Cape. Over 60 SA Sauvignons have been very highly rated by wine panels internationally during the past 12 months, and

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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

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Sauvignon Blanc can develop beautifully with age: Top 10 Awards

GIVEN THAT over half the number of entries in the 2022 FNB Sauvignon Blanc SA Top 10 Competition were made in 2022, i.e. 86 out of 161 wines from 102 producers, it’s perhaps no surprise that this vintage dominated at the awards presentation: six in the Top 10, with 13 in the Top 20. This was despite what some have described

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Sensational spirits, beautiful bottles, brandies of the Cape

COGNAC, ARMAGNAC, CAPE BRANDY… An acquired taste, some would argue. Thrice as strong as most red and white wines. Aqua vitae, the water of life! Distilled wine, in basic terms, but in its finest form a wonderful spirit savoured in sips. And those bottles… Medicine for the soul! Originating in the vineyards, as they do, the brandies of South Africa

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KWV’s Perold chalks up eighth win in Cape Blend competition

THE PINOTAGE Association’s Perold Absa Cape Blend Competition was named in honour of Professor Abraham Izak Perold, the ‘Father of Pinotage’. The focus is on a category of red blends in which Pinotage is the primary component, and since the inception of the competition, KWV of Paarl has been the most successful entrant by far – eight wins with seven

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KC Vin de Constance fetches record price at online auction

ALMOST as newsworthy as the record-breaking price of over R58K fetched for a 500ml Vin de Constance 1987 at the ‘Cape Heritage Wine’ Auction by Strauss & Co end-August 2022, was the ‘bargain’ price that the 1957 Chateau Libertas went for. A 750ml bottle of this old Chateau Lib blend from Cinsaut and Cabernet Sauvignon that came out of the

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Saronsberg wins big at Shiraz SA Challenge – 10 years on

SURE THERE ARE other delightful reds and whites in their range, but it’s Shiraz that they specialise in at Saronsberg. Surely the leading wine outfit in the district of Tulbagh, their Shiraz and Shiraz-based blend ‘Full Circle’ easily clear the bar for inclusion among their respective Top 10s in the South African Wine Classification – shoo-ins for the Top Wine SA

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Ken Forrester Chenin Best in Show at World Wine Awards 2022

THE DECANTER World Wine Awards in the UK are mega. 18 244 entries in 2022, a world record as international wine competitions go. Judged over two weeks, with the various panels comprising some 250 experts including more than 41 Masters of Wine and 13 Master Sommeliers. 8074 bronze medals awarded, 5900 silvers, 676 golds, 165 platinum medals and 50 wines

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Prices updated, availability checked… Top SA wines under R120

SJOE! The Trophy Wine Show got it so right when they honoured the 2019 Thokozani Cabernet Franc as Discovery of the Show in 2022. Best value gold medallist in South Africa’s premier wine competition, open to wines of all categories, this beauty from the Diemersfontein cellar in Wellington was also top of its class at the National Wine Challenge (SA)

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2022 Paarl winelands checklist: where to go, what to go for

  FROM THE FOOTHILLS of Paarl Rock Mountain to the Simonsberg, Voor Paardeberg and beyond, this is a wine route encompassing some of South Africa’s biggest cellars as well as some of its smallest. Babylonstoren, Fairview and Spice Route are among the most popular tourist destinations in this district where the boundary lines separating Paarl from Franschhoek and Stellenbosch can

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