Tag Archive | "Cape wine"
Beat the clock: Eben Sadie, a man on a mission
You only have to turn the clock back a dozen years to date the Sadie Family’s first wine, Columella 2000, yet Eben Sadie has the air of the wise old man of the Swartland. As well he might. In his quest to identify the best terroir and do it full justice, the man works double-time, [...]
Continue reading...My Top 5 Wines of the Year: South Africa
Posted Saturday 31st December 2011
They say that life’s too short to drink bad wine, less still to write about it too! With the exception of lesser vintages in vertical reports, I rate highly every wine which makes its way onto my website, so it’s no easy task to select my top wines of the year. Here’s my top five [...]
Continue reading...Shazam! Kaboom! Moving to Mulderbosch & joining forces with chef Peter Tempelhoff. All change for Cape winemaker Adam Mason
Posted Friday 25th November 2011
I heard this week that Adam Mason, winemaker at Klein Constantia in Constantia, will be assuming the position of winemaker at Mulderbosch, Stellenbosch with effect from next month. It’s been all change this year at both Klein Constantia (recently taken over by Zdenek Bakala and Charles Harman, wealthy Czech and English bankers) and Muldersbosch which, together with [...]
Continue reading...Mullineux magic – Swartland’s granite and schist dream team
Posted Wednesday 23rd November 2011
When I first visited the Swartland in 2004, Eben Sadie was just starting to make his mark with Columella, a Syrah/Mourvedre blend first made in 2000 and Palladius, a Chenin Blanc/Rhone blend. Returning earlier this month, things have changed and how. Once known as the Cape’s bread basket, Swartland has become its seed bed of [...]
Continue reading...V is for victory…and Vergelegen
Posted Friday 18th November 2011
I’ve tasted Vergelegen’s wines numerous times, both at home and in the Cape. Marvellously consistent and beautifully executed they’ve always been a beacon of clarity and quality. So it was great to put a place to the name and visit last week. As I expected, the Cabernet Sauvignon blends were absolutely first rate across a range of [...]
Continue reading...November Wines of the Month: two top Autumnal Cape wines, each under a tenner
Posted Wednesday 2nd November 2011
They say that dogs reflect their owners. If my ebullient November Wines of the Month, both extreme good value, are anything to go by, I reckon the same is true of wine! Boekenhoutskloof The Wolftrap White 2010 At last, Marc Kent has succumbed to the virtues of Chenin Blanc, which comprises 19% of this [...]
Continue reading...Wine detecting at New Scotland Yard: the Cape acquits itself rather well
Posted Friday 29th July 2011
I’d been looking forward to presenting last night’s tasting for the Comets, the Metropolitan police’s sports and social society. Focused on South Africa, if I say so myself, I’d selected a cracking line up which got a big thumbs up for its diversity, also for the common thread - freshness and texture, which greatly contributed to the balance and food friendliness of the [...]
Continue reading...The Top 100 SA Wines plus the Cape’s First Growth properties?
Posted Sunday 3rd April 2011
Last week, a new competition – “The Top 100 SA Wines” – was launched in South Africa. An international panel of judges was tasked with making the selection tasting the entries (apparently 400 wines) over a week. The results are expected later this month (see here). Meantime, South Africa’s Grape online magazine announced its own “Top 100,” this [...]
Continue reading...April Wines of the Month:Ghost Corner Semillon 2008 (Elim) & Steenberg Semillon 2010 (Constantia)
Posted Thursday 31st March 2011
I’ve written a good deal about Hunter Valley Semillon from Australia lately and with good reason! But a South African tasting last week reminded me that the Cape can produced very accomplished Semillons too. Quite different from the Hunter, the Cape’s cool climate regions produce wines which are closer in style to Margaret River or Bordeaux, perhaps [...]
Continue reading...Calling Bath and Bristol – top tasting of Tokara & Thelema wines & it’s free!
Posted Saturday 5th March 2011
A heads up for dwellers of Bath, Bristol and thereabouts. On Tuesday 8th March Thys Lombard from Tokara and Thomas Webb from Thelema will show 14 wines at at Great Western Wine. These South African Stellenbosch-based estates are in their prime and the wines well worth getting to know. Stellenbosch is very much the Cape’s Cabernet Sauvignon capital so [...]
Continue reading...March Wines of the Month: Hamilton Russell Chardonnay 2009 & Raats Cabernet Franc 2007
Posted Tuesday 1st March 2011
A dynamic duo from the Cape this month, the first of which is on deal at Majestic at the mo! Hamilton Russell Chardonnay 2009 (Hemel-en-Aarde Valley) This consistently impressive South African Chardonnay was one of five Chardonnays from around the world which made the cut for the Sommelier Journal’s Top Releases of 2010. Its tightly structured [...]
Continue reading...My top five wines of the year: South Africa
Posted Friday 31st December 2010
The end of the year is nigh so, first, thank you for reading and may I wish you all the very best for the New Year. And, to conclude this week’s high fives for each of my areas of focus, today, it’s South Africa’s turn. You’ll find my top five wines of 2010 below (in no particular order). And [...]
Continue reading...High fives: Platter’s South African Wine Guide 2011 launches with a record breaking 58 five star wines
Posted Friday 19th November 2010
In Tuesday’s blog about Julien Schaal Mountainside Chardonnay 2009 (here), I mentioned that the roster of top Cape Chardonnays is creeping inexorably upwards. Well that’s as nothing compared with the leap in five star wines featured in Platter’s South African Wine Guide 2011. When I first visited South Africa in 2004, the guide featured 17 five star [...]
Continue reading...Navigating the Cape’s vinous heaven on earth
Posted Sunday 17th October 2010
I’m not sure if it’s still true, but South Africa certainly used to be the UK’s favourite long haul travel destination. Given Cape Town’s proximity to the wine lands, it gave wine sales a boost when I worked at Oddbins in the City. Keen to hold onto the experience for that bit longer, freshly returned travellers would zip into the [...]
Continue reading...Cabernet: too damn polite or just classy? And some great Cape examples.
Posted Tuesday 31st August 2010
Pictured is the august reading room at the South African Embassy, London, venue for Wines of South Africa’s July Taste the Earth tasting at the South African Embassy. It’s a serious looking environment and one absolutely well suited to showing Cabernets. I say that because one of my favourite quotes about Cabernet comes from Californian winemaker [...]
Continue reading...The Loire v South Africa: Sauvignon & Chenin Blanc
Posted Monday 28th June 2010
Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc are long established grape varieties in the Loire with profiles to match. In South Africa, Sauvignon is a very “johnny come lately variety”, while Chenin Blanc’s history in the Cape dates back to the 16th century. So how did the Cape wines fair against a couple of Loire examples? Jacques Rouzé Les Grandes Vignes [...]
Continue reading...Cape crusades with Schalk Burger, Jean Daneel & Luddite’s Niels Verburg
Posted Thursday 26th November 2009
Not a photo you’d usually associate with me or wine, but bear with me! I’d timed my Western Australia trip so I got back for the annual South Africa “mega-tasting” in London but things didn’t go according to plan. I picked up a flu bug and, with a palate as dead as a dodo, no [...]
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Posted Thursday 19th January 2012
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