Tag Archives: Helderberg

Top-notch Grenache! Perfect with fish on a hot summer’s day

IT WAS MADE to enjoy when dining on fish, and served chilled, poured at 12°C or so as per most white wines, although it’s not… The 2021 vintage of red Grenache under the Donkiesbaai label is one of half a dozen or so South African bottlings from the variety very highly rated by panels of experts in 2023 – this

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Stellenbosch Res steps up a gear… Haskell winds it down…

IT’S GOODBYE to the Longtable restaurant at Haskell Vineyards and hello to Stellenbosch Reserve – for lunch (Tue-Sun) and dinner (Thu-Sat), classy yet casual, and a tasting room offering wines from the ‘Stellenbosch Collection’. Think pizza and chicken from the rotisserie, but also a lamb dish, beef fillet, pan-seared fish… On the the winelist and in the tasting room: the

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2020 Le Riche Reserve Cab looks set to be rated best vintage yet

DESCRIBED AT the 2023 Decanter World Wine Awards in the UK as “graceful and accomplished”, the Le Riche Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 was the most highly rated red from South Africa and, from over 18 000 entries internationally, one of 50 wines celebrated as ‘Best in Show’. What the panel of judges experienced was: “Dark, black-red in the glass, with

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Stellenbosch winelands checklist 2022: where to go, what to go for

  THE NUMBERS go some way to painting the picture! Fifteen of South Africa’s Top 20 Cabs are from Stellenbosch. Cabernet Sauvignon, that is. Ten of the country’s Top 20 wines from Pinotage are WO Stellenbosch. Eleven of the Top 20 Red Blends. Also, 11 of the Top 20 Chenins are from here, and nine of the Top 20 Chardonnays.

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Time and again, Stellenrust shows how it’s done with really old vines

TOP WINE SA Hall of Fame, one of the Top 100 in the 2022 SA Wine Classification, among South Africa’s Top 10 Chenins and one of the country’s Wines of the Year in 2021. The Barrel Fermented Chenin Blanc from Stellenrust in Stellenbosch, where the business is headed up by Kobie van der Westhuizen (viticulturist) and Tertius Boshoff (cellarmaster). Consistently top quality,

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Bottelary fruit, Helderberg tasting room, bargain white again and again

IT WASN’T the first time they’d won with their second-tier Chenin that doesn’t see the inside of a barrel. The grapes come from different blocks relative to those used for their flagship Barrel Fermented version or The Mothership in their ArtiSons range, but the vines are also very mature (experienced?) and grown in the same part of Stellenbosch from which

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More than a golf legend, Ernie Els a top, good-value Stellenbosch Cab

THERE ARE very few if any other sport stars in the world whose wine is as smiled-upon as that of Ernie Els. Not that he’s the sole proprietor of the farm these days, not since 2015 when Baron Hans von Staff-Reitzenstein (LVS Capital) of Germany became a partner in the Stellenbosch business – the same real-estate investor and industrialist who subsequently

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21st Century Cape Classics! Rust en Vrede Classified among top SA reds

  IT WAS IN 1694 that Rust en Vrede was established among the foothills of what became known as the Helderberg area of the Stellenbosch winelands. The Engelbrecht family have been the proprietors since the late 1970s, and for over 40 years the farm has been one of South Africa’s leading producers, specialising in red wines. The ‘Estate’ blend of

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Chardonnays from Ceres and Stellenbosch hit the spot at Global Masters

AT THE LATEST Global Masters convened by The Drinks Business publication in the UK: “Once more, South Africa proved itself a great place for first-rate Chardonnay at an accessible price, particularly the wines from De Grendel, who have crafted a lovely and affordable Chardonnay from the Ceres Plateau in the Witzenburg Mountains.” The wine: De Grendel Op Die Berg 2019,

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Exemplary Service in SA Winelands: Waterford, Delaire Graff, Leeu

LOOKING for a seamless experience from arrival to departure, a sense that the hosts know what you want before you want it and, above all, warm hospitality… Among the destinations in and around the winelands of South Africa honoured at the 2019 Wine & Food Tourism Conference outside Stellenbosch for offering outstanding, memorable tourist experiences, three were presented with trophies

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Winemag’s Signature Red Blend Report not without some controversy

“PERHAPS the ‘Cape Blend’ is simply a concept that has run out of time” – Winemag’s Christian Eedes, commenting on the poor showing and no-shows by Pinotage-driven combos for the publication’s 2019 Signature Red Blend Report. Perhaps what many Cape Blend producers have a problem with is the random nature of this competition whereby almost anything goes – apart from

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No surprise as R&V stars in Cabernet report with not one wine but two!

  THE ENGELBRECHT family and their team have maintained Rust en Vrede’s reputation as one of South Africa’s top red wine cellars for the past 40 years or so, ever since the Stellenbosch estate began specialising in Cabernet and Shiraz, either in collaboration or on their own. All of these reds are Classified, with the Estate blend as well as

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Small and precious, Kleinood renowned for one top Shiraz after another

THE SORT of place you can fall in love with. Quaint. A wine farm in the traditional sense. Sprawling vineyards. Dirt roads. Classic design. Duck pond and gardens. Organic feel. Welcoming yet somewhat secluded: only open to the public on Fridays and Saturdays (otherwise by appointment), and only four wines, apart from the occasional once-off. Also selling under Kleinood’s Tamboerskloof

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Top 50 Wines from Top Stellenbosch Cellars – 2019 Classification

OF THE TOP wines from Stellenbosch cellars over the past 10 years, Chardonnays outnumber Chenins by almost 2:1 with Cabernet and Cab blends accounting for 80% of the Top 50 reds. The following are the very best track records from the wineries of Banghoek, Bottelary, Devon Valley, Helderberg, Helshoogte, Jonkershoek, Koelenhof, Kuils River, Polkadraai Hills, Simonsberg, Stellenbosch Kloof and elsewhere

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Morgenster trophy laureate promises even more if we can bear to wait

THE LATE Giulio Bertrand established a tradition at his Morgenster wine and olive farm in Somerset West of releasing Bordeaux-style reds only when they have had the benefits of ageing, although he and his winemakers weren’t averse to strutting the qualities of their beauties in their youth, too. So it is again with the 2014 Estate Reserve, a small quantity of

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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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Great view! And from the Idiom collection, another wine of character

IT’S A MAGICAL place, north of Sir Lowry’s Pass on one of South Africa’s less-travelled routes, high up the slopes of the Helderberg with a fantastic view of False Bay that stretches to Cape Point in the distance. The Idiom tasting room and restaurant at Da Capo Vineyards is home to some impressive reds, including a good Cape Blend and Bordeaux-style

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Less and less low-profile… Eikendal releases 2013 vintage of its ‘icon’ red Classique

EIKENDAL’S latest releases of their so-called ícon wines – the 2014 Chardonnay at R127 pb and the 2013 red blend Classique at R223 pb – promise much. Such are the good track records of these wines that it’s amazing to some that the Stellenbosch property still has a low profile relative to many of the other Top 50 wine cellars in South Africa. It was

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Winter Wonderland! Cape winelands transformed after one of the heaviest snowfalls in years makes its mark

Thelema Mountain Vineyards, Helshoogte, Simonsberg-Stellenbosch Vergelegen, Helderberg, Somerset West Vineyard up the road from the Niewoudt’s Cederberg Private Cellar From Ken Forrester Vineyards: Avontuur Estate on the Helderberg, Somerset West Stark-Conde, Jonkershoek Valley, Stellenbosch Boekenhoutskloof, Franschhoek Morgenster Estate, Helderberg, Somerset West Stellenrust, Stellenbosch Paul Cluver, Elgin

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Beautiful lunch venue in the Helderberg, Stellenbosch

GUARDIAN PEAK, the sister winery of Rust en Vrede just around the corner, is a  favourite lunch-time destination in the Cape winelands. It’s one of those cellars with a restaurant that you want to linger at all afternoon, taking in the views and enjoying a menu tailored around the wines that include a Sauvignon Blanc available nowhere else and reds

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