Category Archives: Concours Mondial du Sauvignon

Gustus Sauvignon Blanc a delightful package of surprises

THE LATIN word for ‘taste’, Gustus is also the name of a really good-value range of wines from Darling Cellars outside the town on the R315 to Malmesbury, and the 2020 Sauvignon Blanc in the collection is surprising in more ways than one. Surprisingly good quality and interest value, benefitting surprisingly well from time in the bottle. Judged best unwooded

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Bush Vine Sauvignon Blanc from Stellenbosch a ‘World No. 1’

THE WINE is “herbaceous” and a whole lot more according to the judges who liked it so much that a trophy was awarded to the producers Villiera for best wooded Sauvignon Blanc on show – the international Concours Mondial du Sauvignon 2023, a competition based in Brussels, with the tasting panels gathered in Franschhoek (the first time outside Europe in

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Villiera and Darling Cellars SA champs at Mondial du Sauvignon

SURPRISING to some, when the results of Concours Mondial du Sauvignon 2023 were announced no gold medals were awarded to any farm on Constantia’s Sauvignon Blanc Route, although there were plenty of golds presented to cellars in various other parts of the Cape winelands renowned for good expressions of the variety. Also somewhat surprising is that the top-scoring South African

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Wooded wines impress at Mondial du Sauvignon, Portugal

OF THE 1120 entries from 23 countries in the 2022 edition of Concours Mondial du Sauvignon, 225 were wooded wines – including the 2021 vintage of The Journal from Diemersdal in Durbanville, one of nine trophy winners as the best of four gold medallists from South Africa. The other SA stars included the Coastal Cuvée 2017 from Delaire Graff in

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A journal of six generations striving for what the farm is truly capable of

WHAT TO MAKE of Diemersdal… A Sauvignon Blanc specialist. A Pinotage specialist. A good all-rounder. With a pretty decent ‘Farm Eatery’ to lunch or dine at in the winelands of Durbanville… Short of energy they’re not. In fact the Louw family and their team sometimes seem at risk of over-stretching themselves, regularly adding to the range and tweaking their strong

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Tokara wins trophy for best wine at international Mondial du Sauvignon

  THERE WERE OVER 1200 wines from around the world gathered for assessment at Mondial du Sauvignon (Blanc) 2021 in Brussels, Belgium. The contest involved some 40 judges who deliberated for four days in choosing 127 gold medallists, nine of which went on to win trophies – three French wines, two Austrians, one New Zealander, an Italian, one from the

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Cool-climate Sauvignon selling at a cool price for a wine of this class

ANNI is the third daughter of Vrede en Lust owner Dana Buys, her namesake a rather impressive Sauvignon Blanc. From Casey’s Ridge, the family’s farm in Elgin, the grapes are taken to the cellar on their estate in Simondium at the foot of the Simonsberg, Paarl. And what emerges in bottle, adorned with a dove, is an unwooded beauty of

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Eight-year-old Delaire Graff raises eyebrows at Mondial du Sauvignon

THE VAST majority of entries at the annual Concours Mondial du Sauvignon 2020 were from the 2019 and 2018 vintages, but there was a South African that stood out for being way older than most: vintage 2012 of the Delaire Graff Coastal Cuvée Sauvignon Blanc, made using a combination of grapes sourced from the districts of Durbanville, Stellenbosch, Darling and

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Winter Ferment another golden success for Diemersdal. Ice wine next?

  DIEMERSDAL has a reputation for being a Sauvignon Blanc specialist pushing the envelope, and ‘Winter Ferment’ is the latest innovation in what cellarmaster Thys Louw describes as a New World style. After the harvest in February, the grape juice/must is frozen and kept at -20°C until June before being thawed and fermented in the Cape winter. Unique in South

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Lunching al fresco with Kleine Zalze VS Sauvignon Blanc… Lovely!

  A FRESH fish dish or summer salad cries out for good Sauvignon Blanc as a lunchtime companion. At R210 a bottle, the Family Reserve of Kleine Zalze in Stellenbosch is one of the Top 10 in the South African Wine Classification, but at half the price the winery’s Vineyard Selection offers particularly good value, the 2017 vintage achieving good

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Respectable showing by South Africa at Mondial du Sauvignon, Italy

THE MOST successful South African cellar at the 2019 Concours Mondial du Sauvignon was Delaire Graff of Stellenbosch, winning two gold medals (including one for a nine-year-old Sauvignon Blanc!), with Diemersdal of Durbanville, Strandveld outside Elim in Cape Agulhus, Kleine Zalze of Stellenbosch and Kroonpoort Vineyards also securing gold. 1010 wines from 26 countries were assessed by 73 judges from

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2018 off to a good start at Ormonde: top winemaker, top Sauvignon

DROUGHTS aside, to state the obvious… Darling can be a pretty good place to grow vines and harvest grapes for making lovely wines – especially Sauvignon Blanc. So good, in fact, that it’s remarkable how many producers based outside the district use fruit from the area – even though few spell this out on their labels. Successful wines from non-Darling wineries

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Eight expressions of Durbanville Sauvignon Blanc, two in SA Top 10

EIGHT WINES from Sauvignon Blanc, with Eight Rows in the Hall of Fame, four Sauvignons in the SA Wine Classification, three in the Top 20 and two in the Top 10. Diemersdal Estate of Durbanville is not the only leading Sauvignon producer in South Africa, but no other winery comes close as regards their success as a specialist with so many versions of

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The Wild Child of Nitida growing into one of the beauties of Durbanville

NITIDA winemaker Daniel Keulder tells of how in 2012 the Wild Child “started off as a bit of an experiment with a wild ferment in a couple of barrels”. Hence the name of a Sauvignon Blanc still made largely using a method involving natural or indigenous rather than inoculated or cultured yeast, one of several wines produced from this variety at

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The Wonderful Grape! Uva Mira does it again from way up high

AS THE producer says: Uva is the Latin word for grape. Mira means worthy of admiration… The name also shares a cosmic link: the red, giant binary star Mira, the most notable twinkle in the Cetus constellation. Hence the somewhat wacky label of The Mira Sauvignon Blanc, which came under the spotlight again with a gold medal for the 2017

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Boland Cellar of Paarl back on the radar with Talent & Terroir

WITH HALF a dozen winemakers at last count and casting their net wide in sourcing grapes from vineyards near and far from where they’re based north of the Paarl CBD, Boland Cellar’s offering has grown to seven or so labels including their top-tier No. 1 Reserve and the quaffable Flutterby. It’s with their mid-tier One Formation blends and Talent &

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Kleine Zalze Family Reserve Sauvignon Blanc one of the best there is!

FROM one of South Africa’s Top 20 wineries, one of the nation’s Top 10 expressions of Sauvignon Blanc, Top Wine SA Hall of Fame… Kleine Zalze Family Reserve Sur Lie is consistently rated as among the Cape’s top quality, more interesting Sauvignon Blancs, and the 2017 vintage is no exception: a winner at the SA Sauvignon Blanc Top 10 competition plus

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How long before DGB includes a Sauvignon Blanc in The Bernard Series?

IT’S AMONG The Bernard Series that you’d typically expect to find the flagships in the Bellingham portfolio. However, as there currently isn’t a Sauvignon Blanc in this range from the DGB cellar in Wellington, for the best of the variety in Bellingham kit we look instead to a wine that has a label picturing the Bellingham homestead in Franschhoek – a

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Top Sauvignon Blanc from the rocky Cederberg and the plains of Elim

SOME OF US would buy it just for the label! That ‘The Bowline’ combination of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon in the ‘Ghost Corner’ range of wines from David Nieuwoudt’s Cederberg Private Cellar has an interesting story behind it, is another plus. And, it’s Classified as consistently one of South Africa’s very best white blends. The latest endorsement of its quality and

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South Africa 3rd at Mondial du Sauvignon – ahead of Italy, New Zealand

AUSTRIA, host of Concours Mondial du Sauvignon 2018, scooped the second-most number of medals at the competition behind France: 78 to 126. In third place, South Africa achieved 22 medals (11 gold and 11 silver) ahead of Italy (21) and New Zealand (16). Although when it came to the trophy laureates, New Zealand’s Clos Henri (Marlborough) was the only producer

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