Tag Archives: Muscadel

Fountain of Youth… At R85 a bottle, a ‘must try’ Sauvignon from Elgin

A 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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Muskadel SA put their hands together for Badsberg and Mont Blois

TOP MUSCADELS from the Cape remain oh such good fortified dessert wines, but oh so underrated – downplayed, you could argue, even by some of the producers themselves, let alone consumers with a sweet tooth who also seem to place a higher value on unfortified desserts including Noble Late Harvest, Natural Sweet and Straw Wine. The Muskadel SA association doesn’t have

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Muskadel, Muscadel, Moscato, Muscat… South Africa is good at it!

ODD that perennial sweet wine favourites Alvi’s Drift, Nuy and Orange River Cellars didn’t get a look in at the 2018 Muskadel SA Awards for fortified desserts, but maybe they didn’t field any of the 31 wines entered this time round. Then again, two of the Top 10 cellars in this category came storming through – Bon Courage winning with both

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Nederburg’s Muscadel impressing wine aficionados around the globe

NEDERBURG Private Bin Eminence 2012 has been included among the Top 10 entries at the 2016 edition of Muscats du Monde staged in the city of Frontignan-la-Peyrade in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France. The Paarl cellar’s Eminence was one of 29 gold medallists – another South African among them being the 2015 Red Muscadel from Orange River Cellars, Upington, with the 2010

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Nuy ‘oasis’ showcases Inspiration, Mastery, Legacy… and top Muscadel

IT WAS ABOUT TIME! Long overdue, you might say… By far and away South Africa’s leading producer of fortified dessert wines over the past 30 years or so and with a reputation for great-value quaffers too, Nuy Winery east of Worcester had made do with a rather humble cellar-door tasting and sales facility until the new showcase venue, restaurant and deli opened

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Nederburg and Orange River wave flag for South Africa at Muscats-du-Monde, France

NEDERBURG Private Bin Eminence Natural Sweet Muscadel 2008 placed among the Top 10 at the 2015 Muscats-du-Monde in the Languedoc Roussillon region of France. The only other South African gold medallist was the 2010 Eminence, and the only other South African wine to earn a medal of any sort in the competition was the Orange River Cellars Red Muscadel 2013, which won

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Delicious desserts and fantastic value-for-money! Badsberg among South Africa’s most consistently good Muscadels

THERE ARE THOSE that can be too spirity, over the top, but the leading examples are quite wonderful among the dessert wine offerings of the Cape. At their best, the fortified red and white Muscadels and Jerepigos made from Muscat grape varieties – typically d’Alexandrie or de Frontignan – show complexity and alluring sweetness without being cloying. And generally speaking, they’re

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Top SA sweet wines and top SA sweet wine cellars over the past 10 years – best track records between 2004 and 2013

SOUTH AFRICA’S 2014 Wine & Cellar Classifications on the basis of the best track records in 25 local and international blind-tasting forums over the past 10 years have just been released. To be eligible for Classification, a wine must have been made and bottled in South Africa and must have earned very good reviews by at least one of the

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South Africa’s top dessert wine ratings in 2013 and best dessert wines under R100 a bottle – the experts’ choice

NEDERBURG and Nuy remain dominant among South Africa’s most successful sweet wine producers, but the competition is growing and getting stiffer… The following wines achieved outstanding reviews from the judges at blind-tastings around the world in 2013: TOP SOUTH AFRICAN DESSERT WINE RATINGS IN 2013 – UNFORTIFIED Badsberg Badslese Natural Sweet 2012 – 4½ Stars in Platter’s Guide Boekenhoutskloof Noble

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Déjà vu?! Orange River Cellars Muscadel wins once again

FANTASTIQUE! It seems like just the other day that Orange River Cellars of the Northern Cape came top at the Muskadel SA Awards and now they’ve triumphed at the international Muscats du Monde wine competition in the Languedoc Roussillon region of France. Over a period of two days, 55 judges from around the world nosed and tasted 224 wines from 24

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Orange River Cellars collect top prize at Muskadel Awards

HOT AND DRY, PERFECT FOR MUSCADEL: Orange River Cellars, Upington IF THERE’S one type of wine that they’re really good at making in the Orange River Cellars of the Northern Cape it’s sweet wine, and the farmers up and down the river on either side of Upington have been making some of South Africa’s best dessert wines for ages. Their

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South Africa’s top desserts in 2012 – best sweet wines

THE STAND-OUT desserts from South Africa this year, the best sweet wine reviews around the world – from the great unfortified Natural Sweets and Noble Lates led by Vin de Constance, Fleur du Cap, Edelkeur and Eminence to the fantastic-value fortified sweets led by Badsberg, Bon Courage, KWV, Nuy and Slanghoek: UNFORTIFIED DESSERT Boekenhoutskloof Noble Late Harvest 2009 – highly recommended in Platter’s Guide

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R55 for one of the world’s best sweets? How about that!

These wines are generally under-valued, as in very competitively priced, many of them nothing short of cheap. In part it’s because some of the country’s very good Muscadels – red and white – are made in areas of the Cape winelands not renowned for top award-winning stuff when it comes to the unfortified wines of various sorts. In part it’s because

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