Are Riesling and Merlot really SA’s best cultivars?

So, Wines of the Southern Hemisphere (below) wins Gourmand magazine’s “best wine book for 2012.”  Certainly not a comet vintage for wine books then when the authors pick Riesling and Merlot as the cultivars to seek out from South Africa.

And to ask over alcoholised Bordeaux consultant Michel Rolland to write the foreword, makes a cynic suspect this is about fashion rather than fact.  But then Gourmand is just confirming the value of media awards in wine with this year’s crop more hilarious than usual.