THE ACHIEVEMENT of Iona with the 2021 Chardonnay in their Elgin Highlands range at the 2023 Decanter World Wine Awards (UK) was impressive, to say the least. Of all the Chardonnays entered in the competition, it was one of only 16 rated 97+ on the judges’ 100-point scale and one of only three honoured among the ‘Best in Show’ (Top
Read moreIONA Chardonnay 2021 of the Elgin Highlands and the 2020 Reserve Cab from Le Riche in the Helderberg vineyards of Stellenbosch were the panels’ favourite South African wines at the 2023 Decanter Awards in London. A record-breaking 18 250 entries were received from 57 countries, assessed by 236 judges including 53 Masters of Wine and 16 Master Sommeliers. After weeks of
Read moreELGIN is best known for Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc… Merlot less so. Chenin Blanc even less so. Yet Elgin Merlot and Chenin are what Cape wine producers excelled with most at the 2022 Global Fine Wine Challenge, hosted in Sydney, with the competing nations including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the USA. In previous years, South Africa
Read moreSOUTH AFRICA has a number of fine Chardonnay cellars, and that of Paul Clüver on De Rust Estate in Grabouw counts as one of the very best. Pioneers of the Elgin wine district in the Cape South Coast, the farmers, winemakers and business folk on the team also know their stuff when it comes to Pinot Noir, Riesling and Sauvignon
Read moreWITH MANY if not all wine competition organisers who honour overall champions at their shows, local and international, the choice has mostly to do with how many awards each producer wins, rather than which are the favourite wines. Yes, usually trophies count more than gold medals, golds count more than silvers, etc, but no, it’s not necessarily a case of
Read moreJUNE 2022: Richard Kershaw’s GPS Series Cape South Coast Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2020 is celebrated as one of the most highly rated wines at the International Wine & Spirit Competition in London. Two months later: the same beauty from the Master of Wine’s cellar in Elgin is the critics’ favourite in Winemag’s annual Prescient Sauvignon Blanc Report. The only other wine
Read moreTHE 2020 VINTAGE of Neil Ellis’s Whitehall Chardonnay had only been on the market for a few months when it was included among the Top 4 in Winemag‘s 2021 South African Chardonnay Report. By the end of the year it had been Highly Recommended in Platter‘s SA Wine Guide, and after some more time in bottle it was considered 95+ on
Read moreA PINOTAGE-BASED red blend from the Flagstone winery in Somerset West, a Sauvignon Blanc from Paul Cluver in Elgin, a Cape Port from De Krans in Calitzdorp and the flagship Cap Classique sparkler from Graham Beck in Robertson. The four Wines of the Year at South Africa’s 2022 National Wine Challenge, and the producers were chuffed: “We are over the
Read moreTHE PRICE of over R1000 a bottle puts Bouchard Finlayson’s flagship Pinot Noir from the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley into the realm of South Africa’s luxury wines, although for less than half that you can get the same vintage of their Galpin Peak. In fact it wasn’t that long ago that the “cameo selection” Tête de Cuvée also carried the name Galpin
Read moreOF THE FIVE Worcester wineries that qualify for the South African Cellar Classification, one has made a success of a flagship range associated with places outside the district. The most established of Overhex proprietor Gerhard van der Wath’s Survivor wines, the Pinotage and Chenin Blanc, are made using Swartland grapes harvested over 100km away, as is the Syrah. The Survivor
Read moreEVEN 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
Read moreWITH 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
Read moreIT WAS AS recently as 2012 that British Master of Wine Richard Kershaw established his business in Elgin to make world-class Chardonnay, Shiraz and Pinot Noir that would show a sense of place. Today he is widely acknowledged as one of the top producers in South Africa, one with an academic leaning, a bent for geography, and the labels
Read moreTHE ODDS are stacked in favour of the top-rated Chardonnay in SA Winemag’s 2020 Prescient Report coming from either Elgin or Stellenbosch. The announcement of who and what got the nod was put on hold until an awards function at the end of the year, but of the Top 10 we’re told that four are from Elgin and five are
Read moreANOTHER interesting line-up of wines from that ‘heartbreak grape’. To think that there are so many Pinot Noir producers in South Africa! And kudos to Elgin-based Master of Wine Richard Kershaw, the only winemaker to place among the winners of both the inaugural Top 5 competition associated with the country’s Pinot Noir Association and that organised by Winemag.co.za which involved the
Read moreTAKE IN THE VIEW of Lothian Vineyards and you may well think you’re somewhere other than Elgin. The hills and mountains around the edge of the ‘basin’ are a giveaway that you’re in this beautiful part of the Cape winelands once more often associated with apple farming, but the Wilson’s outfit is off the beaten track relative to most
Read moreANNI 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
Read moreTHE 2020 National Wine Challenge of South Africa – a.k.a. Robin von Holdt’s Top 100 Wines – attracted “well over 500” entries, down on previous years but not bad given the lockdown(s) due to Covid-19. The coronavirus pandemic resulted in the judges all being locally based, with Greg Sherwood MW unable to fly out from the UK. Ginette de Fleuriot
Read moreTHELEMA has long been one of South Africa’s leading Cabernet Sauvignon producers and these days the focus at the top end of the pyramid is on a Bordeaux-style blend, the flagship ‘Rabelais’ being a Cab-driven partnership involving Petit Verdot. Of late, however, two of the Webb family’s other reds that have been grabbing attention are the Reserve Merlot from their
Read moreA SIGN OF THE TIMES! You can no longer find a really good Cap Classique bubbly at under R100 a bottle and it won’t be long before the same applies to various other categories – white and red, dry and sweet. In the 2020 edition of Platter’s South African Wine Guide published this month, around 350 wines were in the
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