WHO KNOWS what happened! With just days to go before the first Pinotage Festival of 2023 came news that the Stellenbosch event scheduled for 13 May had been cancelled. No doubt many wine lovers were looking forward to seeing who would be strutting their stuff and, for just R150pp, getting to compare the different styles. One wonders how many of
Read moreTHERE ARE over 150 farms in Stellenbosch where you are welcome to taste and buy some wine from a cellar on the premises. Of these, around 70 also offer food, either by way of a restaurant or platters of this and that, some of which entail ordering in advance. So which are the best farms to visit in this beautiful
Read moreA JOURNEY of discovery! That’s what they promise to put on your plates and the same can be said about what they pour into your glass. The FYN dining experience was recently ranked among the World’s Top 50, following its inclusion among the Top 20 according to Cape Town’s Inside Guide, and one wonder’s how it will rate in terms
Read moreSO HOW readily available are the Top 100 South African wines in the 2022 Classification, those with the best track records spanning the past 10 years, and how much are the current releases selling for? Well, a Top Wine SA survey of the country’s leading online merchants, focusing on those wines in the Hall of Fame (highlighted in bold below),
Read moreWHAT TO LIKE about Winemag‘s pick of South Africa’s ‘Top 20 Wines’ in 2021, ‘The Best Wines in South Africa’ and their choice of ‘Winery of the Year’? Well, good to see Vergelegen in the spotlight again: top estate, veteran winemaker, impressive track record. Interesting to see what Winemag rated most highly: Cavalli Filly Chenin Blanc 2020 and DeMorgenzon Maestro
Read moreIN 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 moreREGULAR LAUREATES at the Pinotage Association’s annual Top 10 awards, Rijk’s of Tulbagh and Beyerskloof of Stellenbosch have fared particularly well again in 2020, each with more than one wine included among the 20 finalists announced by the Pinotage Association in advance of the trophy presentations. Begun almost a quarter of a century ago, the Absa Top 10 has grown
Read moreA NUMBER of South Africa’s Top Pinotage cellars are represented among the 2019 Absa Top 10 Competition finalists. There are no surprises among the Top 20, with all of the producers having excelled before with previous vintages. Odds-on favourites to be called to the podium on 14 August? Beyerskloof, Kanonkop, Wildekrans… Most notable absentees? Rijk’s, Flagstone, Diemersfontein… That the Pinotage Association
Read moreTHERE ARE numerous wines made from grapes grown in Elgin and trucked to cellars in other parts of the Cape winelands. The following are 100% Elgin, those with the very best track records from the top cellars in the area according to the SA Wine & Cellar Classification. • For the full Elgin Wine Classification, click here. • For wine-tasting
Read moreHARDLY surprising! The Top 20 wines of Walker Bay come from the Top 10 producers in a district renowned for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay – those with the very best track records in Bot River, the Hemel-en-Aarde and elsewhere in the area over the past 10 years according to the 2019 South African Wine & Cellar Classification. • For the
Read moreA CHECKLIST that will come in useful when next you head out wine-tasting or shopping on the Paarl wine route, the following are those whites, reds, bubblies and sweets with the very best track records from the cellars of the area according to the 2019 SA Wine & Cellar Classification. • For the full Paarl Wine Classification, click here. •
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. •
Read moreYOU COULD hardly script a better year for a winery, such have been the achievements surrounding the 30th anniversary of Beyerskloof. One of South Africa’s top red wine cellars, the Stellenbosch producer is unrivalled as a Pinotage specialist with four single-varietal expressions of South Africa’s most successful ‘indigenous’ wine grape cultivar, three Pinotage-led Cape Blends, one of the very few white
Read moreTHE JUDGING is complete, preparations for the awards function at Cavalli Estate in Somerset West on 15 August are in full swing and wine lovers are looking forward to seeing which of their favourites among the Top 20 finalists are considered by the panel of experts to be the best of the best in the 2018 Absa Top 10. The Absa Top
Read moreWITH South Africa’s Cabernet Sauvignon particularly topical in May, following Winemag’s annual review of the category for their Prescient Report, it seemed a good time to circulate an update of the prices being charged for the country’s leading examples – the Top 20 Cabs according to the SA Wine Classification. Cellar-door prices are those posted by the producers and the market survey
Read moreBACK IN THE DAY, when the first SA Wine & Cellar Classification was published, the top producers were Classified as Boekenhoutskloof, De Toren, De Trafford, Graham Beck, Jordan, Kanonkop, Kanu, Neil Ellis, Rust en Vrede, Rustenberg, Simonsig, Stellenzicht, Thelema, and Vergelegen. Thirteen years later, most of these cellars continue at the forefront of the South African wine industry as regards
Read moreBASED ON THE BEST track records in over 30 local and international forums for the assessment of wine quality and interest value over the past 10 years, the South African Wine & Cellar Classifications celebrate the country’s leading outfits – those regularly on top form, their product judged top-notch again and again, year after year. To be eligible for the
Read moreBellingham The Bernard Series Small Barrel SMV 2014 5 Stars and 97/100 in Platter’s, double gold at Veritas, gold at Decanter Awards, winner in Shiraz SA Challenge R275pb, DGB, Franschhoek Cellar Blend of Shiraz (87%), Mourvèdre (10%) and Viognier, (3%), WO Agter-Paarl Barrel-fermented and matured in French oak barrels for 14 months Alc 14 % | RS 4.5 g/l |
Read moreTHE 2017 Signature Red Blend Report on Winemag.co.za follows the assessment of 82 combos from 62 producers – Shiraz-led Rhöne style, Pinotage-driven Cape Blends and various other alternatives to the Bordeaux model typically moulded around Cabernet or Merlot, sometimes Cabernet Franc. By the end of the competition, the panel of judges – Winemag’s Christian Eedes (chair) with Wine Cellar’s Roland Peens and
Read moreTHE 2017 SA Cellar Classification confirms the ‘who’s who’ of the Cape winelands when it comes to those producers whose wines have been most fancied most often by panels of experts around the world during the 10-year period 2007 to 2016. And in this regard, obviously, the Top 20 outfits overall make for a rather special bunch. In general, the reputation
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