Top image: Rozanne Nel & Francois Rautenbach

Boplaas Family Vineyards has again proven worthy of its champion status following the release of this year’s assessment by experts compiling the 2024 Winemag 10-Year-Old Wine Report. Boplaas was named as producer of the best fortified wine.

 

The year 2023 will be remembered for the many milestones it brought Boplaas. In addition to several new top-level awards, the family-owned winery expanded its wine and whisky portfolio and Garden Route tasting rooms. Made headlines not only at a major industry auction, but also thanks to the Rugby World Cup.

 

Exactly ten years after the establishment of the wine estate Benguela Cove near Hermanus, it now triumphed by taking the standout Vertex award among 1 247 selected entries at the 2023 Veritas Awards with its 2019 Joie de Vivre Cap Classique.

 

Boplaas wines were among the very best performers at the annual Veritas Wine & Spirits Awards, announced last weekend. The winery received one of the few double gold medals presented, and two golds. 

 

The prestigious Veritas Awards results marked a significant awards season conclusion for Rietvallei Estate’s remarkable year of competition successes as it bagged a haul of five gold medals.

 

Boplaas Family Vineyards’ Alvarinho white wine has been rated overall best at a South African show just months after the release of its maiden vintage.

 

For the second time in the short space of only four months, Van Ryn’s brandies have received another World’s Best Brandy Trophy. This time it was Van Ryn’s 12-year-old potstill brandy that received the World’s Best Brandy Trophy for brandies 11 years and older at the 2023 International Spirits Challenge announced in London.

 

The 2023 SA Olive Awards were held at the beautiful Grande Roche Hotel in Paarl on Friday, September 8th. A panel of local and international judges thoroughly evaluated all 82 entries from 32 producers of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO).

 

Loxtonia Cider’s African Sundowner has won Gold at The Global Cider Masters 2023 hosted this July in London, confirming it is a standout cider that is a cut above the usual, offering complexity and intensity. The African Sundowner Baobab flavoured cider is slightly tart with a balanced sweetness and has a fresh apple aroma with Sundowner Apple and Tropical Fruit flavours notes. The majestic baobab tree is an icon of the African continent representing the “The Tree of Life”.

 

Boplaas Family Vineyards was crowned national winner for Best Touriga Nacional at the 2023 South African Terroir Awards, reaffirming the farm’s reputation for excellence with this traditional Portuguese variety. Significantly, it was precisely 30 years ago that the cultivar was first planted at the winery in the Little Karoo.