The second Winemag Competition for Alternative Grape Varieties saw Swartland organic producer Org de Rac score 92 points for its Verdelho 2018. This competition, which aims to rate the standard of South African wines made from alternative grape varieties as well as to promote an awareness of their quality and presence, saw 87 wines being entered with Org de Rac achieving the second highest score in the White Wine category. In last year’s inaugural competition, the Org de Rac Roussanne 2017 also scored an enviable 92pts.

Top images: Ben Glover

For this first time since its inception, the Michelangelo International Wine and Spirits Awards will welcome a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc expert to its judging panel. Ben Glover from Marlborough, the source of some of the world’s best and most popular Sauvignon Blanc wines, is set to join the panel of international wine adjudicators in August to assess the entries into this year’s Michelangelo Awards.

Top image: Frank Meaker, Org de Rac cellarmaster.

Diemersdal Estate from Durbanville has received the first international accolade for its revolutionary Winter Ferment Sauvignon Blanc, winning a Gold medal at the Concours Mondial du Sauvignon held this year in Udine in Italy‘s Friuli region. Diemersdal Winter Ferment 2018, the farm’s second vintage of this specific wine style, was one of six South African wines to win Gold at this year’s competition, which drew 1 010 entries from 36 countries.

Top image: Dr Carien Coetzee

Pioneering wine estate Diemersdal has contracted Dr Carien Coetzee, an experienced wine researcher and scientist, to assist this Durbanville winery in improving its technical and scientific capabilities aimed at continuing to produce cutting-edge wines, with the focus on its world-renowned range of Sauvignon Blancs.

De Wetshof’s Bon Vallon Chardonnay 2018 has been adjudged one of the top 15 wines in this year’s Chardonnay du Monde, the world’s leading competition for wines made from the noble grape of Burgundy. Some 696 wines from 36 countries were judged by a panel of experts at Château des Ravatys, the wine estate of the Pasteur Institute at Saint Lager in the Burgundy wine region of France, with only 54 Gold medals awarded. De Wetshof’s Bon Vallon 2018, an unwooded wine, is one of only two South Africa wines to make the list of Top 15.

With only a few Cabernet Sauvignon blocks left to pick on organic wine estate Org de Rac, cellar master Frank Meaker is ready to sum up vintage 2019: small on yield, superb on quality.

Dense clouds bearing splashes of summer rain in the Robertson region has led to De Wetshof’s 2019 harvest kicking off in a manner that can be described as stop-start-wait. While the early low-sugar Chardonnay for Cap Classique was being harvested from the middle of January in dry, mild conditions, picking the bulk of the estate’s grapes for its famous Chardonnay terroir-specific range only got underway in mid-February.

Daschbosch, the premium label under Breedekloof winery uniWines, has expanded its range of terroir-specific and innovative wines with the addition of a Clairette Blanche made from 42 year-old vines and a pioneering Skin Contact dry white, a blend of Chenin Blanc and Muscat d’Alexandrie.

Top Image: Thys Louw