Tag Archives: Jancis Robinson

Fine Wine is about the level of quality and interest value, but what else?

A FEW DECADES ago, wine lovers looking for recommendations as to which South African reds, whites or sweets were a cut above the rest might have relied on certification that the country’s Wine & Spirit Board had pronounced the contents of a bottle to be of ‘Superior’ quality. Then came the wine scribes, individual critics, local and international, offering either

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Too low? Too high? If only we could all agree on wine rating definitions

THE CONTENTIOUS issue of wine ratings and awards continues to flare up from time to time, with outspoken wine lovers, wine scribes, critics and judges at odds with each other to the point of disbelief, even outrage. The problem? Firstly, there’s not enough consensus regarding which scoring system to use – star ratings aside, there are different versions of the

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What’s a fair price to pay for good SA wine, where to draw the line?

LEADING UK wine scribe Jancis Robinson writes on her website that South Africa’s industry is at “a very strange, possibly critical, point in its evolution.” She refers to “a serious cohort of radical and cohesive young winemakers forging a new wine identity for their country” (some of whom she had never heard of, because they are so ‘fledgling’). “There is

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