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
Read moreNOPE! The La Motte Estate in Franschhoek is not closed. Although operations at the Pierneef restaurant and various other visitor attractions were suspended for renovations expected to be underway until sometime in 2024, an Artisanal Bakery and Garden Café now operate from Wednesday to Sunday at the farm’s Jonkershuis. Dating back to 1752, the Cape Dutch building has been extended
Read moreJUST OVER an hour’s drive (around 80km) from Cape Town, the ‘French corner’ of the Cape winelands – east of Stellenbosch and Paarl – is one of the most popular wine routes in South Africa. Numerous guesthouses and Airbnb options, as well as a wine tram connecting one end of the valley to the other. This is gourmet country.
Read moreCELEBRATING excellence and innovation, the ‘Great Wine Capitals’ Best Of Wine Tourism Awards recognise the top experiences on offer to those visiting the 11 greatest wine regions of the world, although, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only six of the 11 regions participated in the 2020 contest. The participants this year comprised 200 entrants in the winelands surrounding Adelaide (Australia),
Read moreTHE 2019 Uber Value SA Wine Guide revisited – all of the prices updated following the annual general increases across the industry in March 2020, and excluding all of those wines that have sold out since the guide was first published last December. These are the very best value wines of South Africa at under R100 a bottle that were
Read moreIT’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
Read moreWHERE TO EAT on the Franschhoek Wine Route, on a farm, among the vines? And which wines to seek out, what the panels of experts have highly recommended recently? For lunch, your best bets include The Werf and Rhone Homestead at Boschendal, Franschhoek Cellar (also Bellingham cellar door), Pierneef à La Motte, Racine at Chamonix, AND the new venues
Read moreTHEY SAY they produce the world’s best Shiraz. A bold claim by the Hartenberg producers in Bottelary, Stellenbosch. And at the 2019 edition of Syrah du Monde, France, they were certainly up there with some of the best, their ‘Stork’ flagship placing among the Top 4, and Bon Courage of Robertson also one of the Top 10 – their ‘Pepper
Read moreWORTH taking along next time you go wine-tasting or shopping on the Franschhoek wine route, the following are those whites, reds and bubblies with the very best track records from the cellars of the area according to the SA Wine & Cellar Classification. • For the full Franschhoek Wine Classification, click here. • For wine-tasting options, locations and contact info,
Read moreONLY R94 a bottle, and in such good company! You might well have expected Bon Courage to lead with their flagship Inkará Shiraz, yet it’s with the relatively humble Pepper Tree version that they have excelled at Syrah du Monde in the Rhône Valley, France – the 2016 vintage from this Robertson wine estate selected among the Top 10 gold
Read moreKUDOS to Franschhoek estate La Motte for winning an international award in the 2018 Tourism Challenge run by the Drinks International magazine of the UK. The category: Best Food and Wine Matching Experience. And it’s not the first time that they’ve achieved this accolade. The judges were impressed by the ranking of Pierneef à La Motte as one of the best
Read moreNo Hein, no! You don’t give yourself or your wines enough credit! Leopard’s Leap represents good value relative to a lot of the stuff on-shelf, with La Motte’s finest regarded by plenty as pretty impressive. Many wine lovers would argue with you: luck has little to do with it; your farm’s good reputation is well-earned. And we bet you have
Read moreIT’S REPORTED that there were over 500 entries in the 2017 edition of the National Wine Challenge, now in its seventh year as a competition that culminates with awards for the Top 100 entries from South African vintners and Grand Cru awards for the wines judged to be best in each class. The number of submissions is some way off the
Read moreTHE 2017 Drinks International Wine Tourism Challenge (UK) culminated with awards for Best Visitor Centre (Codorniu in Spain), Most Innovative Experience (Vineyard Tour Guide App at Yealands in New Zealand), Best Food and Wine Matching (Zonin’s Castello di Albola in Italy), Best Retail Experience (Gonzalez Byass in Spain), Best Promotional Body (Stellenbosch Wine Routes), Best Wine Event (Harvest and From Vine
Read moreFOLLOWING good reviews for the 2012 vintage, The Pierneef Collection Syrah Viognier from La Motte joined a very select group of beauties in the Top Wine SA Hall of Fame with eight or more vintages to receive very good ratings from top tasting panels locally and/or overseas during the past 10 years. And with a gold medal won at the 2015 Trophy
Read moreMANY IN FRANSCHHOEK pride themselves on the town’s reputation as a leading sparkling wine producer and the annual Cap Classique & Champagne festival is a marvellous affair. One out of every three cellars in the district produces bubbly, the vignerons promote their Cap Classique route and some of the wineries are specialists who make little or nothing else. And yet…
Read moreWHAT LEADS TO a wine being positioned as ultra-premium price-wise could be a rarity factor coupled with consumer/collector demand, the investment that’s gone into the maturation/ageing of the product, brand value, perhaps simply the cellar’s wish to offer a statement wine demanding attention even when or precisely because it’s beyond the realm of affordability for many folks. Invariably though –
Read moreUNIQUE insofar as it’s the only wine competition in South Africa where all of the judges are French, the annual Classic Wine Trophy taste-off is hosted at the Taj Hotel in Cape Town and this year there were two producers who grabbed most of the glory – Morgenster of Somerset West and Hamilton Russell Vineyards of the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley outside
Read moreTHE RESULTS of the 2013 Classic Wine Trophy competition are hardly surprising in terms of the class winners. Particularly not when it comes to the overall victor, with Chamonix scooping three of the 14 trophies awarded in various categories at the Taj Hotel in Cape Town just a few months after being named Winery of the Year in the 2013 edition of
Read moreGREAT VALUE from Sauvignon Blanc at under R65 per bottle – South African wines that have received good reviews by one or more of the top tasting panels around the world during the past 18 months. Prices given in SA rand, ex-cellar or approximate retail in the case of wineries that are closed to the public: At R50pb – Rietvallei Sauvignon
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