GO BELLINGHAM! After panel-tastings of over 7500 wines by 242 wine experts from 46 countries over six days in the town of Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, Germany, the 32nd edition of the Mundus Vini international wine awards culminated in the presentation of 70 grand gold medals, one of them going to a red from the Cape winelands. The 2019 Bush
Read moreSADLY, the South African Wine Index (SAWi) is losing credibility as an annual guide to the country’s best wines, the grand gold and platinum bottle stickers that signify inclusion in the publisher’s ‘Grand Wines Collection’ (GWC) becoming lumped together with others that shoppers and collectors should be wary of. What might once have been a noble endeavour to rank the
Read moreIT’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
Read moreWHAT’S not to like about Douglas Green Chardonnay 2017? Maybe that you can’t buy it from the cellar while on the Wellington wine route, only from a supermarket. Or perhaps that there’s no reference on the label to where the grapes come from: ‘Western Cape’ isn’t helpful; WO Robertson is a nice-to-know. Otherwise all good: latest of the good reviews from
Read moreBY AND LARGE, Douglas Green is a range of good everyday-drinking SA wines sourced from producers in various parts of the Cape and sold at very competitive prices. Every now and then, however, along comes a vintage that performs above its station… On more than one occasion fans might have been forgiven for asking whether by mistake perhaps the brand
Read moreTHERE ISN’T A CELLAR DOOR on the Cape’s wine routes where you can head to for a tasting of The Bernard Series under the Bellingham label. There isn’t a manor house to marvel at or a restaurant to wine and dine in, and the reds and whites in the Series are made using grapes sourced from various areas of the
Read moreGREAT VALUE Cabs at under R80 per bottle – SA 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 South African rand, ex-cellar or approximate retail where cellars are closed to the public: At R33 a bottle – Riebeek Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon 2011,
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