At the end of June there was a special tasting in London organised by Wines of South Africa showcasing a wide selection of wines presented under their Old Vines Project in the comfortable backdrop of the Reading Room at South Africa House. You can also read about the background of the South Africa Old Vine project here. The tasting included wines at a range of price points from the easy and approachable red berry-fruited 2016 Boutinot South Africa Percheron Old Vine Cinsault at a suggested snip of around £7 – £8 to a number of stunning single vineyard/cru wines from Alheit Vineyards at up to £65 a bottle.

Indeed Chenin Blanc is the main story here and the variety was the key focus of the tasting. Other whites were presented from Sauvignon Blanc, Palomino, some classy and very old Semillon and a handful of white blends. Red grape varieties took up substantially less table space and included Cinsault, Grenache, Carignan, Tinta Barocca and Pinotage. Certainly it seemed to suggest that there potentially are more great whites emanating from South Africa than reds, certainly from older vine plantings. This said there were no red Bordeaux blends, or examples from Syrah, Pinot Noir or Chardonnay present. Some of South Africa’s top reds are undoubtedly among benchmarks for the Southern Hemisphere.