Tag Archives: Bot River

Beaumont… Hall of Fame winery, good-value lunch for under R200

BEAUMONT. Bot River. Just off the N2 between Elgin/Houhoek and Caledon. Home to one of the most highly rated South African Chenins over the past 10 years. Recommended with Hot Smoked Trout (R160pp) or an interesting salad (R85) at their Zest Deli – R110 for a glass of the Hope Marguerite Chenin, R45 for their standard Chenin Blanc. Or perhaps

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Another champion Cap Classique, the ‘Joy of Life’, not yet sold out

AMAZINGLY, well into 2024 – after the December festivities, months since the wine top-scored at the 2023 Veritas Awards to win the Duimpie Bayly Vertex Trophy – the Benguela Cove Cap Classique Joie De Vivre (Joy of Life) Brut 2019 was still available ex-cellar! With only the third edition of this bottle-fermented bubbly from Penny Streeter’s estate between Bot River and

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Top Sunday Cellars in the Cape Winelands – 2022 Update

EVEN WHEN IT comes to the Top 100 Cellars on the various wine routes of South Africa, not all of them are open to the public for tastings and sales all week, all weekend, i.e. including Sundays. See below for those that are, what their Sunday trading hours are plus links to the various destinations should you wish to make

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2022 Bot River winelands checklist: where to go, what to go for

MORE OR LESS equidistant between Elgin and Caledon, the winelands of Bot River extend east of the Houw Hoek Pass and north of the villages Fisherhaven and Hawston on the outskirts of Hermanus – just over an hour and a half (about 90km) from Cape Town. The recommended restaurants on the wine route include those at Gabriëlskloof, Arcangelli and Wildekrans,

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CWG growing as a pointer to much of what is great about Wine SA

WITH THE 2020 addition of Chris Alheit and David Sadie, membership of the Cape Winemakers Guild (CWG) rose to 46 producers, whose names and those of the places they work at make for a list that in itself is a useful guide to much of the best from South Africa’s wine cellars. You only get to be on this list

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Winemag Chenin Report: Mulderbosch and Stellenrust star among Top 10

THE POWERS that be at Winemag.co.za delay the announcement of exactly how the panel rated their South African favourites in the publication’s various category reviews – a Top 10 is all they’ll tell us in each instance until divulging the rankings / scores out of 100 and the names of all the winners at a gala function come the end

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And so it began… SA wine festival cancellations in the wake of Covid-19

THE Fijnwyn Bubbles and Food Festival scheduled to take place in Pretoria on 20 and 21 March was the first top South African wine event in 2020 to be called off in line with the SA government’s banning of gatherings involving more than 100 people as one of the measures to combat the Coronavirus – the pandemic having begun in

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Cape Blends make for delightful drinking but lack industry commitment

  THERE ARE STILL a number of Cape Blend sceptics and naysayers. Apparently they don’t know what they’re missing, or don’t know better! Various expressions of Pinotage are enjoyed by wine connoisseurs around the world, and many of the cognoscenti are as enthusiastic about the red blends in which the SA-born variety plays a pivotal role – a minimum of

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More evidence that top Shiraz can be grown almost everywhere in SA

THAT DE GRENDEL top-scored (95/100) in the South African Winemag’s 2019 Shiraz Report was not surprising: the cellar is one of the country’s Top 10 producers in this category. However, whereas the better-known Shiraz from this outfit on the Durbanville Wine Route is made from grapes harvested in Paarl and Stellenbosch, the loyalty-club exclusive orginates outside Elim in the district

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Shows, Festivals, Tastings, Celebrations… Best SA Wine Events in April

  THIS IS the first year that the Stellenbosch Wine Festival is held in Cape Town, instead of Stellenbosch! And just how much progress has Riesling from the Cape winelands made over the past 10 or 20 years? There are quite a few top Wine SA events to contemplate going to in April 2019, whether you’re in Nelspruit, Cape Town,

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Top 20 Walker Bay Wines, Top 10 Walker Bay Cellars – 2019 Classification

HARDLY 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

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Bot River Hitlist: wines not to miss – especially on a Spring Weekend

SO PERHAPS you are going to be in Bot River in the Walker Bay district of the Cape South Coast for the Spring Weekend. Or maybe you’re just contemplating this area of South Africa’s winelands as they put out an extra welcome mat, step up the charm and make a bit more noise at this time of year. What to

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