Top image: The cellar team – Juandré Bruwer, Thys Louw en Mari Branders.

Being planted exclusively under dryland vines, Diemersdal Estate in Durbanville saw no discernible difference in average grape yields during harvest 2018, despite the four years of relentless drought that has this year had a major impact on the South African wine industry.

Eleven years after launching his unique Pinotage under the Le Vin de François label, legendary wine maker Francois Naudé is seeing his annual once-off offering taking its place at the top of South Africa’s wine offerings, both in terms of quality and in the high-end prices the wine commands.

Diemersdal wine maker Thys Louw had just finished the first stage of the world’s toughest mountain-bike race, the Cape Epic, when he heard that he’d won two gold medals.

The inaugural Winemag Competition for Alternative Grape Varieties saw Swartland organic producer Org de Rac score 92 points for its Roussanne 2017.

It is hot, it is dry, but the Chardonnay harvest of 2018 on De Wetshof Estate has delivered a grape crop in excellent health despite the yield being some 10% lower than average.

Top image: Diemersdal winemakers, from left Juandré Bruwer, Thys Louw and Mari Branders.

With the Western Cape in the grips of a drought making headlines around the world, certain parts of the South African winelands are finding themselves in the midst of a grape harvest showing scant effects of the dry conditions.

With the Cape Wineland 2018 harvest scarcely out of the blocks, Swartland organic wine farm Org de Rac, has finished picking its white grapes.

Despite being a self-confessed Sauvignon Blanc fanatic, Thys Louw of Diemersdal believes in the ability of Durbanville to deliver some of the finest red wines in South Africa and the world.

Top image: Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen, left, and Frank Meaker from Org de Rac.

With wine having played a profound role in the culinary journey which lead to him becoming South Africa’s first Michelin-starred chef, Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen has launched his first wines under his own label. Both white and red wines, named after his award-winning restaurant JAN which is based in Nice, France, are blended from grape varieties grown on one of South Africa’s leading organic wine farms, Org de Rac in the Swartland region.

The dry conditions experienced by the Cape winelands over the past few years has reached crisis-proportions in some regions, with predictions of a far lower grape crop for 2018. Yet in certain areas of the Western Cape, vineyards are showing exceptionally rigorous growth.