The 2020 edition of the excellent wine guide “Platter’s South African Wine Guide” was launched in November. A total of 125 wines and one brandy received the coveted 5 stars. “Editor’s Award Winery of the Year” went to the well-known Boekenhoutskloof in Franschhoek. “Best newcomer of the year” was Pieter Ferreira Cap Classique. Pieter Ferreira […]
There seem to be no limits to the creativity of winemakers. Diemersdal Estate in Durbanhill in South Africa has recently launched its third vintage of its Sauvignon Blanc Winter Ferment. For this wine, the grapes are harvested in February. The grapes are pressed and the juice gets 3 days of skin contact. However, the fermentation […]
South Africa’s vine surface has declined since 2009 when it was just over 102,000 hectares to today’s 93,000 hectares (table grapes not included). However, wine’s contribution to the country’s GDP has steadily increased during these years. The wine industry is important for the economy, not least in the Western Cape (around Cape Town), where most […]
Now is really the time to take a look at the South African wine scene. If you are mostly familiar with the easy going, inexpensive wines from this country, you will be surprised. Now much more attention is given to the terroir. To plant each grape in a suitable soil, to lower the yields and […]
There is no doubt about it. South African wines have been too cheap for too long. Therefore, it was uplifting to read the report on South African wine exports 2018 from WoSA (Wines of South Africa). The export value is finally increasing, after many years of immobility. WoSA has struggled to make this happen for […]
Distell is South Africa’s largest wine producer. With brands such as Alto, Nederburg, Durbanville Hills, Plaisir de Merle, Pongrácz, Fleur du Cap, Allesverloren, Zonnebloem, Two Oceans, Drostdy-Hof and others, the company accounts for a not insignificant part of the entire South African wine production. Now all the premium wines of Distell will be managed separately. […]
A few years ago, we wrote in the Brief about the South African wine producer KWV who had made a wine called Earth’s Essence without added sulphur. Instead, they had used the rooibos plant, known for its antioxidant properties. Continued research in South Africa has now shown that the South African tea plant honeybush also […]
Older vines give more character to the wine, says Rosa Kruger, a well-known South African viticulturist. She is behind a project called South Africa’s Old Vines Project, which aims at finding old vineyards, vineyards that have often been abandoned. The idea with the project is to give a new life to these old vines. A […]
Method Cap Classique (MCC) is the name given to South African sparkling wine produced according to the traditional method, ie with a second fermentation in the bottle. The Cap Classique Producers Association (CCPA) was founded in 1992. The idea was to find a suitable name that would facilitate the marketing of the wines. To call […]
It’s winter in South Africa and it’s raining, at last. A relief, but more rain is needed, says DP Burger, winemaker at Glenwood in Franschhoek, and others we have heard from. The draught in Western Cape, where the wine regions are, have long been a serious problem, but the situation is now improving. The water […]
In South Africa, around 100 different grape varieties are grown on an area of approximately 117,000 hectares (table grapes not included). This is quite impressive, although of course many of the varieties are grown in very small quantities. The most planted variety in South Africa is still Chenin Blanc with 19,000 hectares. This is still […]
Wine production conditions have hardly been ideal in recent decades, but now that there is light at the end of the tunnel, at least one producer has decided to blow life in the dormant wine industry in Zimbabwe. Jonathan Passaportis, owner of Winelands of Bushman Rock, the almost only surviving vineyard, believes in Zimbabwe’s future […]
During our visit to South Africa at the beginning of March, the harvest was in full swing. The very difficult, and prolonged, drought in the wine regions of the Western Cape affects the grapes of course. But most of the producers we met told us that although the volume in most places will be small […]
There is a severe water shortage at the moment in South Africa’s wine regions. The harvest 2018 will probably be the smallest in ten years. The South Africans begin picking their grapes in February. The irrigation dams in Western Cape, where most of the wine regions are located, are just 30 % full compared to […]
The 38th edition of the Platter’s Wine Guide of South African wines has just been launched. This wine-bible gives you, in a handy format, all you need to know about South African wines. Or at least a lot. It means a lot to a winery to have a wine in the guide with four or […]
We have not yet planned all the wine tours on the schedule for next year but you can already book some of them. This is what we have published so far (more will come): Chile & Argentina, January 27 – February 11. Sorry, this is fully booked but will return in Jan-Feb 2019. South Africa, […]
We were recently doing wine tour with wine lovers in the Loire Valley we tasted some really delicious chenin blanc wines, many of them. Chenin blanc has never really caught on as a trendy grape, not at all like riesling, with which it shares several characteristics. We have never understood why since it is a […]
A key figure behind establishing South Africa’s Méthode Cap Classique (MCC) sparkling wine is Pieter “Bubbles” Ferreira, cellar master at Graham Beck Wines in Robertson. Champagne-trained, South African inspired, Ferreira favors an elegant, crisp ‘house style’ that compliments the region’s diverse cuisine. Read the interview with Pieter Ferreira of Graham Beck here on BKWine Magazine. […]
South Africa’s magnificent sparkling wine, Methode Cap Classique If Champagne has a sibling, it may be méthode cap classique. Specific to South Africa, cap classique employs the same “traditional method” used to make champagne, whereby the second fermentation occurs in bottle. And if South Africa’s méthode cap classique sparkling wine has a ‘godfather’, it’s Pieter […]
Talking with Bruwer Raats, winemaker in South Africa The ghost of Gaston Huet looms large in the life of Bruwer Raats (pronounced brew-vay rahts) of Raats Family Wines in Stellenbosch, South Africa. Huet, an unbreakable French vigneron, survived a World War II Nazi concentration camp, then walked three days non-stop after release to make harvest […]
If you are already planning a wine tour for next year (this year is sold out), we can first of all offer you Chile-Argentina and South Africa in the winter. But we also have some of the dates ready for the rest of the year. Here they are: Chile & Argentina, January 27 – February […]
It’s quite possible to make exciting, interesting and characterful wines from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in South Africa! Everything depends on the temperature – and the winemaker of course (as well as a whole lot else). During a visit to Paul Cluver last spring I noticed an interesting map of temperature differences between the various […]
Franschhoek can almost be too quaint, too pretty as a wine region. The wineries are dotted along the main road – the only road – along the valley like pearls on a string. They are surrounded by beautiful real estate developments where the villas have stunning views over the mountains. The village of Franschhoek itself […]
If you’ve never tasted the wines of South Africa, you need to start – now! Arguably one of the globe’s most overlooked wine regions, South Africa hammocks the continent of Africa between the Atlantic Ocean on the west, and the Indian Ocean on the East. As an emerging New World producer, South Africa enjoys some […]
It is not that much of an exaggeration to say that Ntsiki Biyela is a South African winemaking legend. She was the first female black winemaker and has been featured for example on CNN and on Forbes (and on BKWine Magazine previously). After many years as winemaker at Stellekaya in Stellenbosch Ntsiki Biyela has now […]
We have published quite a few wine videos lately. You can for example watch a whole series of videos with the winemaker at Glenwood Vineyards, DP Burger, in Franschhoek: An introduction to Glenwood Vineyard in Franschhoek with DP Burger When to pick the grapes? A visit to Glenwood Vineyards And several more on their different […]
There is a wine revolution quietly going on in South Africa. Or more correctly, a second revolution. The first one was when apartheid ended and the KVW iron grip on the wine sector also came to an end. That led to the birth of the modern wine industry in South Africa, where today you can […]
Autumn / fall 2017 Bordeaux, September 27 – October 1 Piedmont, wine and truffles, October 18-22 Douro Valley, Portugal, October 18-22 Alentejo and Setubal, October 25-29 Winter 2018 Chile and Argentina, January 27 – February 11, 2018 South Africa, February 23 – March 5, 2018 (with possible safari and golf add-on) For more information please […]
The programs for the two winter wine tours, Chile-Argentina in February and South Africa at the end of Feb-early March, are now ready and published. These two long distance tours bring you to wonderful summer climates in the southern hemisphere and most likely it will be when harvest is in full swing. You can find […]
There is a lot going on in South Africa on the wine scene. Although they have been making wine for more than 350 years here the wine industry was under-developed during the apartheid era. A new chapter began in the 1990s that took South Africa on to the international market, but to a large extent […]
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