AMAZINGLY, well into 2024 – after the December festivities, months since the wine top-scored at the 2023 Veritas Awards to win the Duimpie Bayly Vertex Trophy – the Benguela Cove Cap Classique Joie De Vivre (Joy of Life) Brut 2019 was still available ex-cellar! With only the third edition of this bottle-fermented bubbly from Penny Streeter’s estate between Bot River and
Read moreALSO KNOWN as Alvarinho in Spain and Portugal where it is used to make white wines including Vinho Verde, the Albariño grape was used for the first time in South Africa at Newton Johnson Vineyards in the Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley outside Hermanus. Maiden vintage: 2015. Though Pinot Noir specialists, the family’s expertise has long extended to Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc,
Read moreAT THE SA fine wine auction by Strauss & Co on 3 April 2022, highlights of the sale focusing on three top Pinot Noir and Chardonnay producers in the Hemel-en-Aarde were as follows: • Six bottles of Crystallum Cuvée Cinéma Pinot Noir 2009 fetched R8000 (R9380 incl VAT and fees), compared to the pre-auction estimate of R9000 to R12 000. •
Read moreTHE PANEL tasting convenor: Decanter Magazine, United Kingdom. The focus: single-vineyard New World Pinot Noir. The judges: James Doidge (London-based importer), Roger Jones (UK restaurateur, wine critic, chef) and Master of Wine Dirccu Vianna (wine writer and educator in the UK). On the tasting bench: 100 wines, of which 43 were highly recommended, six were outstanding, with one regarded as
Read moreTHAT IT IS sponsored by the respected International Wine Challenge in the UK makes this 2019 list of the world’s 50 best wine farms notable, for sure. However, we are not told the names of the judges. What we are told is that ‘The World’s Best Vineyards Academy’ comprises nearly 500 leading wine aficionados, sommeliers, and luxury travel correspondents from
Read moreHARDLY surprising! The Top 20 wines of Walker Bay come from the Top 10 producers in a district renowned for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay – those with the very best track records in Bot River, the Hemel-en-Aarde and elsewhere in the area over the past 10 years according to the 2019 South African Wine & Cellar Classification. • For the
Read moreAT THE 2015 Global Pinot Noir Masters staged by The Drinks Business in the UK, Bouchard Finlayson’s Tête de Cuvée Galpin Peak 2012 from the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley outside Hermanus and David Nieuwoudt Ghost Corner 2013 from the Cederberg Private Cellar won gold medals, with silvers going to the 2013 Galpin Peak, Finlayson’s neighbour Hamilton Russell for their 2013 vintage, Domaine
Read moreGrapes from Walker Bay, cellar in Paarl, one of the very few SA dessert wines from Sauvignon, just released and already a gold medallist THE FIRST of KWV’s dessert wines to be made from Sauvignon Blanc grapes – or so we think, as the exact origin of their Noble Late Harvests from the ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s is unclear… And the first Noble Late from
Read moreOVER THE past 10 years, six wineries stand out as the producers with the best track records when it comes to South Africa’s top quality Pinot Noir: Hamilton Russell, Bouchard Finlayson, Sumaridge (all in the Hemel-en-Aarde area outside Hermanus), Chamonix (Franschhoek), Meerlust (Stellenbosch) and Paul Cluver (Elgin). Over the past 18 months, however, three Pinot producers have been winning most
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