TIM ATKIN MW! Top international wine critic. Highly respected and awarded. London based. Loves South African wine. Loved by plenty of South African wine producers yearning for a rating of 95-plus and followed by plenty of SA wine lovers who trust his palate. And yet!

In his 2018 “attempt to classify the Cape’s best producers, an annual exercise that has stimulated considerable debate and no little controversy in South Africa”, he chose 250 SA wine outfits that he groups as First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Growths consisting of 25 producers each, and below them a group of 125 so-called Crus Bourgeois: “A snapshot of the Cape wine industry.” He’s chosen his favourite producers irrespective of a long track record. “Some of my classified producers have only made a few vintages… but that’s irrelevant,” he says.

His First Growth Classification announced September 2018 as follows:

AA Badenhorst (Malmesbury-Swartland)
Alheit (Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge)
Boekenhoutskloof (Franschhoek)
Chamonix (Franschhoek)
Crystallum (Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge/Bot River)
David & Nadia (Malmesbury-Swartland)
Delaire Graff (Helshoogte-Stellenbosch)
Hamilton Russell (Hemel-en-Aarde Valley)
Hartenberg (Bottelary-Stellenbosch)
Kanonkop (Simonsberg-Stellenbosch)
Keermont (Stellenbosch)
Klein Constantia
Mullineux & Leeu (Swartland)
Newton Johnson (Upper Hemel-en-Aarde)
Paul Cluver (Elgin)
Porseleinberg (Malmesbury-Swartland)
Raats (Stellenbosch)
Rall (Swartland)
Restless River (Hemel-en-Aarde)
Reyneke (Polkadraai Hills-Stellenbosch)
Richard Kershaw (Elgin)
Sadie (Malmesbury-Swartland)
Stark Condé (Jonkershoek-Stellenbosch)
Thorne & Daughters (Bot River)
Tokara (Helshoogte-Stellenbosch)

No Beyerskloof? No Flagstone? No La Motte? No Meerlust? Atkin doesn’t rank these cellars at all. No room for any of them anywhere in his Top 250.

And Rustenberg? Apparently Atkin doesn’t think much of this Stellenbosch producer either. Not worthy of ‘Fifth Growth’ even, the property is positioned somewhere between 127 and 250. So much for Peter Barlow Cab and Five Soldiers Chardonnay!

Just saying…