Winemag.co.za, in association with financial services company Prescient, announced the top Chardonnays – from a record number of 117 entries – at a celebratory sundowner event at the Norval Foundation in Cape Town on Tuesday, 16 October. 

“What’s your favourite wine?” If I’ve been asked this once, I’ve been asked it a thousand times and I’m never sure if they mean what is my most memorable bottle of all time or rather, my most often purchased, best-quality-relative-to-price label.

Winemag.co.za is pleased to announce the sixth annual Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon Blend/Wooded Sauvignon Blanc Report.

Where does Pinot Noir do best in SA?

This week will see over 1,000 visitors from more than 40 countries descend on the Cape Town International Convention Centre for Cape Wine 2018, which aims to showcase how the quality of wine produced on our shores has improved exponentially over the past couple of decades.

When Christoph Dehosse, now of The Vine Bistro at Glenelly in Stellenbosch, started the fine dining restaurant that was Au Jardin at the Vineyard Hotel in Newlands in the 1990s, I enjoyed a brief stint as the resident wine steward (by no stretch of the imagination was I a sommelier) and recall that Boschendal Grand Vin Blanc (80% Sauvignon Blanc with Riesling and a bit of Semillon) and Hamilton Russell Chardonnay-Sauvignon Blanc were firm customer favourites.

Winemag’s inaugural Sweet Wine Report is now out, the focus being on 1) Natural Sweet; 2) Noble Late Harvest; 3) Straw Wine; 4) Hanepoot and 5) Muscadel.

In conjunction with Tonnellerie Saint Martin, Winemag.co.za is pleased to announce the second annual Pinot Noir Report.

The top performers with 93 points on the 100-point quality scale included: Babylonstoren Babel 2017; Joostenberg Bakermat 2016; Olifantsberg Silhouette 2015 and Org de Rac De Waghuis Red Blend 2016. The Villiera Down to Earth Touriga Nacional Shiraz 2015 at R65 a bottle, earns ‘best value wine’ with 90 points.

The third annual Signature Red Blend Report was recently released by Winemag.co.za – 30 wines out of a total of 68 entries received rating 90 points or higher on the 100-point quality scale.

When the Cape’s first winegrower, Jan van Riebeeck, departed for VOC headquarters in Batavia in April 1662, his successor as commander was Zacharias Wagenaar of Dresden, Saxony (Germany).