South African wine regions wine tour: February 28 to March 10, 2014! We have now finalised the dates for the new wine tour to South Africa: 28 February to 10 March 2014. We are still working on the details of the program, but you can get an idea of how it will look already on [...]
Tag Archives | South Africa
Affordable from South Africa? Higher wages for South Africa’s vineyard workers
Strikes, sometimes violent, hit South Africa’s vineyards and fruit farms earlier this year and late 2012. The workers have asked for strong wage increases which they also got beginning of February. The minimum wage is raised to 105 rand per day (about $12) from the previous 69 rand per day ($8). Employers fear, however, that [...]
South Africa wants to be recognized for its high-quality wines too, says PIWOSA
A new association to promote South African quality wines South Africa is probably most famous for its wines in the entry and middle price segment, often with “plenty of wine for the money”-aspects. Now a new association called Premium Independent Wineries of South Africa (PIWOSA) wants to make the world aware of their top class [...]
What’s on at BKWine Tours (august 2012)
“World’s Top Wine Tours” – Travel + Leisure Magazine, on TravelAndLeisure.com 2012 wine tour program Bordeaux 19-23 September Tuscany 10-14 October Champagne 14-18 November 2013 wine tour program Chile & Argentina, 4-19 February 2013 South Africa, 1-11 March 2013 For more information please contact us on email or on phone (we’re on French time), or [...]
New wine tours with BKWine: South Africa and Chile-Argentina
Both our two new wine tours have now been officially launched: Chile & Argentina, 4-19 February 2013 South Africa, 1-11 March 2013 The Chile & Argentina tour includes the best of the wine regions in those two countries as well as a spectacular trip over the Andes by road. It starts in Buenos Aires and [...]
“Sustainable” and “Fair Trade”. What is it? Does it make sense?
Fair trade, sustainable, organic,… Is it perhaps a meaningless terminology? “Sustainable” is actually quite a curious terminology. Not least for wine. Sometimes it is used as some kind of “super category” embracing everything that is organic, environmentally friendly and sometimes even “ethical”. At other occasions it is used to describe a more narrow type of [...]
Harbour House Restaurant, Kalk Bay Harbour, South Africa | BKWine Pick
The Harbour House Restaurant in Kalk Bay has a fabulous location in the harbour with its feet in the water. One is glad that the windows are closed otherwise one would be completely soaked. Worth a visit both for the view and for the food. Much fish, of course, delivered fresh from the fishing boats [...]
Cape Wine – wine show in South Africa
Cape Wine is to be held in the Cape Town Convention Centre from 25 to 27 September 2012. This is a trade event “with loads of fun built in”, according to the organisers. There will be over 300 wineries exhibiting. The intention is to showcase what is going on in the South African wine regions. [...]
Excellent South African wines from Teddy Hall in Stellenbosch
When we were on our South African wine tour in March we had the opportunity to meet with Teddy Hall. Again we should say. We have met before and have had several occasions to taste his wines. He makes some excellent wine and Britt has chosen Teddy for this April’s BKWine Pick: “Chenin blanc is [...]
Teddy Hall, Stellenbosch, South Africa | BKWine Pick
Chenin blanc is one of my favourite grapes and it is a grape that is grown, at least to any great extent, only in the central Loire Valley and in South Africa. In South Africa chenin wines are getting better and better. One person who knows how to make good wines with chenin is Teddy [...]
A selection of delicious wines from Rickety Bridge in South Africa
Those of you who drink South African wines regularly have probably noticed that the quality of the wines have increased dramatically in recent years. This is often due to hard work in the vineyards by young, ambitious winemakers and their will to experiment with different techniques. An example of this is Wynand Grobler, winemaker at [...]
Some good wines from Meerlust in South Africa, back to Rubicon 1991
Meerlust is an old and very established wine producer in South Africa. They also have a long history of supplying wines to the Swedish market. Their importer, Tryffelsvinet, recently organised a tasting of several of their wines led by Eddie Turner from the winery. Peter Modin reports on the tasting that included wines back to [...]
South African quality wines from Rickety Bridge
Those of you who drink South African wines regularly have probably noticed that the quality of the wines have increased dramatically in recent years. This is often due to hard work in the vineyards by young, ambitious winemakers and their will to experiment with different techniques. An example of this is Wynand Grobler, winemaker at [...]
The Meerlust range of wines, including Rubicon back to 1991
A tasting with wines from the famous South African winery Meerlust is an old and very established wine producer in South Africa. They also have a long history of supplying wines to the Swedish market. Their importer, Tryffelsvinet, recently organised a tasting of several of their wines led by Eddie turner from the winery. Peter [...]
Should we go to Swartland?
On our March wine tour to South Africa (sold out in 2012 – let us know if you are interested for 2013) we have extended the wine regions we visit from “the usual”, those that are most commonly found on tour programs to South Africa: Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, and the Cape. Now we also include the [...]
Rueben’s, Franschhoek restaurant | BKWine Pick
Reuben’s is on the main street in the small town of Franschhoek, one of the most beautiful wine regions in South Africa. This is quite famous restaurant. It has a nice outdoor seating on a small court yard, calm and cool in the evening. The restaurant has a very high reputation. When we were there [...]
11 wine regions to discover (or rediscover) during 2012
We probably all have a tendency sometimes to choose the wine that sounds familiar or what happens to be easiest to find on the shelf. Here is a list to encourage you to look for those things that are a bit more off the beaten path in terms of wine regions. 1. Apulia, southern Italy [...]
Steenberg Vineyards with John Loubser, general manager – one of the oldest wineries in South Africa
Steenberg means Stone Mountain. The reason is obvious when you come here: you are surrounded by stones and mountains, granite stone mountain. This soil gives fantastic sauvignon blanc wines with lots of minerality. They also have sandy soil, loam and other terroir, but all originates from the granite. Steenberg is a very old farm that [...]
South Africa’s first ever wine tourism show
Wine tourism has become an increasingly important source of revenue for South Africa. The Minster of Tourism gave a speech a while back where he underlined the importance of wine travel. Today there are some 20 wine routes organised in South Africa. And now they will have, for the first time ever, a show and [...]
Steenberg Vineyards, South Africa, interview with John Loubser | BKWine TV
Interview with John Loubser, general manager at the Steenberg Vineyards Winery in Constantia on the Cape peninsula in South Africa. Steenberg means Stone Mountain. The reason is obvious when you come here: you are surrounded by stones and mountains, granite stone mountain. This soil gives fantastic sauvignon blanc wines with lots of minerality. They also [...]
South Africa’s biggest export markets: UK, Germany, Sweden
Here are the top export markets for South African wines: UK 104 million hectolitre Germany 72 Mhl Sweden 38 Mhl Netherlands 26 Mhl Denmark 17 Mhl Canada 14 Mhl USA 13 Mhl Russia 7.8 Mhl China 4.3 Mhl Japan 3.4 Mhl Kenya 3.2 Mhl (Source: Drinks Business & WOSA)
High Constantia, South Africa – BKWine Pick
At High Constantia winemaker David van Niekerk makes an exceptional Cap Classic (sparkling wines made by the traditional method) that gets at least three years of ageing on its lees (sur latte). The grapes grow up in the mountains where the climate is fairly cool. Whole bunches are pressed and he gets 400 liters out [...]
UK is biggest export market for South African wine, Sweden in third place
The United Kingdom is by far the biggest market for South African wine exports. A bit more surprising is perhaps that Sweden, with only 10 million inhabitants, is the third biggest market, far ahead of e.g. the USA. South Africa is actually the biggest supplier of wines to the Swedes. Here are the top-ten export [...]
South Africa’s grape varieties: chenin blanc still in the lead
Chenin blanc is not so often called steen, as it used to be, but it is still South Africa’s most grown grape variety, albeit decreasing. Quite a lot of it goes to making the very respectable, sometimes excellent, South African brandy. Pinotage, the exclusivity of south African vineyards, often considered an emblem of SA grape [...]
South Africa’s wine country is organised in three levels
Much have changed in South African wine production over a few decades. Today they use a classification system called Wines of Origin (WO) based on three levels: regions, districts, and wards. There are four regions, with varying number of districts. Each district can have several wards. It is questionable if today there are any distinct [...]
South African wines’ biggest export markets
South Africa is making progress in its wine exports. Total exports are on the increase. Great Britain is the single biggest market but the Scandinavian countries are also performing very well, in particular Sweden that conquered the third place from the Netherlands in 2009. Here is the list of the top ten export markets: – [...]
Stellekaya Winery, Stellenbosch, South Africa – BKWine TV
Stellekaya is one of the wine producers that impressed us most during our trip to South Africa earlier this year. It’s a small producer – they call themselves boutique wine producer – and the wines are not only of high quality but also interesting and with a lot a character. Their winemaker Ntsiki Biyela started [...]
”It’s raining Swedes” in South Africa
Niel Pendock (twitter @NielPendock) thinks ’it is raining Swedes’ in his column in TimesLive.co.za. There are no less than three qualified sommeliers in South African restaurants: Josephine Gutentoft at Grande Roche, Joakim Hansi (”the dapper”) at the Round House in Camps Bay and Mia Mårtensson at Winery of Good Hope blogs.timeslive.co.za . As if that [...]
Google Street View in the vineyard! In South Africa
Google Street View is a tremendous resource to see how cities and various regions look. Google has with specially designed cars driven around almost everywhere and made pictures that anyone can see either on the internet with Google Maps or with the separate application Google Earth. Now, for the first time, Street View has ventured [...]
Grape varieties in South Africa, and sparkling wine
Not just football There’s a lot of talk about South Africa these days (but less and less in some countries perhaps…) with the World Cup in full spin. But disregarding if we’re watching football or not, South African wines are becoming more and more popular. In Sweden, for example, it is the biggest supplier of [...]
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