“MERLOT SOMETIMES gets a bad rap for being sweetish, soft and nothing more,” says Christian Eedes, Winemag.co.za editor and tasting panel chair. However, “the best examples are really luscious and velvety as only Merlot at its finest is able to be… Its crucial characteristic is not its flavour but its texture, which can be described in one word – smooth.
WHAT TO MAKE of Strauss & Co’s July 2020 online auction of fine South African wines?! For the auction catalogue, click here. Full results of the sale here. There were just three producers involved: ‘first growth’ Kanonkop on the slopes of the Simonsberg in Stellenbosch where they make a range of top reds from a range of varieties, Klein Constantia
ACCORDING to the buying guide / cellar-door prices for the panel’s favourites in Winemag’s 2020 Prescient Cape Bordeaux Red Blend Report, Org de Rac of Piketberg in the Swartland could have fielded the best-value entry in the competition at R250 a bottle. On the other hand, the publishers chose to front the report with a scenic image of Warwick among
THE 2020 National Wine Challenge of South Africa – a.k.a. Robin von Holdt’s Top 100 Wines – attracted “well over 500” entries, down on previous years but not bad given the lockdown(s) due to Covid-19. The coronavirus pandemic resulted in the judges all being locally based, with Greg Sherwood MW unable to fly out from the UK. Ginette de Fleuriot
THERE ARE very few if any other sport stars in the world whose wine is as smiled-upon as that of Ernie Els. Not that he’s the sole proprietor of the farm these days, not since 2015 when Baron Hans von Staff-Reitzenstein (LVS Capital) of Germany became a partner in the Stellenbosch business – the same real-estate investor and industrialist who subsequently
THEY CALL it ‘The Tea Leaf’. On the label, there’s reference to a ‘brew’, and yes, there is a note of tea in the flavour profile. But it’s made from grapes, fermented in tank and barrel, and a rather fine wine at that – a favourite of the Winemag panel and one of the best-value combinations reviewed in their 2020
100 SUBMISSIONS from 78 producers was an impressive level of involvement by the South African wine industry in Winemag’s 2020 Prescient Cabernet Sauvignon Report. Most of the top seeds participated, the majority of the country’s benchmark Cabs on the tasting bench for assessment by the panel comprising editor Christian Eedes (chair) with fine wine retailers Roland Peens and James Pietersen
IT HAS TO BE one of the most famous quotes to do with wine: “I only drink Champagne when I’m happy, and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company, I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I am not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it
THERE WAS little fanfare associated with Winemag’s 2020 Cape White Blend Report. Perhaps in part this had to do with the uphill battle to establish a new category which Winemag reasons should hinge on the most widely planted grape vine in South Africa, Chenin Blanc. Some of the country’s finest wines are single-varietal Chenins, and the best-value blend as reviewed
“THERE’S SOMETHING strange happening in South Africa’s Semillon vineyards. Green bunches turn red the one year, then back to green the next. Hung like Christmas baubles on gnarled bushvines, the shapeshifting clusters are an enduring mystery” – Malu Lambert talking about Semillon Gris in Decanter (UK). Full article here. One of the Semillons recommended in the piece is La Colline
THE POWERS that be at Winemag.co.za delay the announcement of exactly how the panel rated their South African favourites in the publication’s various category reviews – a Top 10 is all they’ll tell us in each instance until divulging the rankings / scores out of 100 and the names of all the winners at a gala function come the end
THE quality and status of Wine SA at its best is on the up and up, however the size of South Africa’s wine industry is contracting – whether you’re looking at production and sales or the number of farms and cellars. Of course, times are tough in all wine-producing countries. More good times are just around the corner, right? Highlights
WHO ARE the best of the specialists when it comes to SA wine retailers? See above or below for the prime candidates in South Africa, but have we left out anyone, any place? And, while we’re about it, where best to shop for South African wines anywhere else in the world? Caroline’s Fine Wine Cellar Cape Town: CBD
YES the top price paid at the online Strauss & Co Fine Wine Auction on 1 June 2020 will be recorded as R17 588 for a single bottle of the 63-year-old red blend Chateau Libertas, but the theme of the sale was mostly about Chenin Blanc, Chenin-based blends, and Pinotage, arguably as much South Africa’s signature red as Chenin is
OLD AGE isn’t always a good thing when it comes to grape vines, but man, in many instances, can it make a positive difference to what’s in the glass! Big time! Thankfully, very good wines can originate in young vineyards too; the old stuff is scarce and what’s made from it tends to sell at a premium that can be
“THERE WE WERE, just thinking that this current prohibition, imposed under the guise of limiting the spread of Covid, was about to end with Wednesday’s presidential announcement [13 May 2020].” By ‘Wine Wizard’ Michael Fridjhon, courtesy of Port2Port, seven weeks into the lockdown imposed by the South African government on 27 March 2020 to limit Coronavirus infections, to flatten the
SHEW! Over R85 000 paid for one of the most expensive wines in the world, a single bottle of the Merlot-driven Petrus, 1989 vintage, and nearly R74K forked out for another top wine from Bordeaux, three bottles of ‘first growth’ blend Haut-Brion, also 30 years old. But arguably more impressive at the Strauss & Co / Wine Cellar auction
ART OF/ON WINE Many hold the view that to substantiate the concept of winemaking as an art form, it’s not enough to be limited in volume, exclusive by nature, embellished with an intriguing backstory… Craft/artisanal wines should also present as art, it is said, verbally and visually. For more about the palettes and collections of South Africa’s top boutique outfits
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
SPEAKING during a conference conducted online during the Covid-19 lockdown affecting many countries around the globe, Pau Roca of Spain, the director general of the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) headquarted in Paris, announced that there had been a marked decrease in production in 2019 compared to 2018. The estimated volume of wine produced by all of the
