SHINING in a line-up of 157 sparklers on the tasting bench at the 2023 Amorim Cap Classique Challenge, the 2017 vintage of KWV’s Laborie Blanc de Blancs was judged the best dry bottle-fermented wine made exclusively from Chardonnay and the best wine overall. This on top of the Paarl bubbly having been chosen as Best Cap Classique at the Trophy
Read moreDOMAINE des Dieux’s win at the 2022 Amorim Cork Cap Classique Challenge was their third, having also been applauded as Best Producer in the 2018 and 2014 editions of the competition organised by South Africa’s Cap Classique Producers Association (CCPA). This time round, the 2016 vintage of Des Dieux Claudia Brut was named best wine overall, following the trophy-winning 2012
Read moreELGIN’S Paul Cluver, whose 2020 Estate Chardonnay was the top-scoring white at the 2022 Trophy Wine Show, has a distinguished track record for producing some of South Africa’s finest Chardonnays (and Pinot Noirs). Whereas Glen Carlou on the Simonsberg side of Paarl, whose 2019 Collection Red Blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc was the top-scoring red wine at
Read moreLOUISVALE… Very low profile in recent times, and then POW! Top rating with a Bordeaux-style red blend in the first Ultra Value Wine Challenge after it had collected silver at the Trophy Wine Show earlier in the year, and then the title of Best Rosé at the annual Cap Classique Challenge for South African sparkling wines made according to the traditional
Read moreA SURPRISING result, to say the least! The winner of the 2015 Amorim Cork Cap Classique Challenge contested by 114 bubblies comes from a farm better known for red wines, especially Pinotage, aromatic whites including Gewürztraminer and Sauvignon Blanc – and not forgetting the Italian variety Barbera. However, while Altydgedacht has been making sparklers from Chardonnay in the traditional way since 2008,
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