What I Drank Last Night

“Serious and rather grand, now even more focused with less oak (7 months, seasoned). Lanolin aromas mingle with wood vanilla, measured mouthful briefly upset by pushy 14.5% alc. Like toasty 2005, needing yr/2 to harmonise,” was the tasting note provided for Constantia Uitsig Semillon 2006 provided in the 2008 edition of Platter’s along with a [...]

The single variety bottling of Semillon from Cape Point Vineyards has enjoyed great success at Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show: the 2005 winning the trophy for best in class and the 2003 gold in 2007 (the same year this winery emerged as most successful producer overall); the 2005 a museum trophy last year and the [...]

On Friday, a workshop conducted by Steenberg winemaker JD Pretorius towards a better understanding of Semillon. At the end of 2010, it was the 12th most planted variety in the country with the total area amounting to 1 182.4ha (some 30% of this is planted in the Breedekloof where it’s used to dolly up entry-level [...]

As featured in the March issue of Business Day WANTED: Plantings of Semillon currently amount to approximately one percent of the national vineyard making it very much a niche variety. It typically tends to have good palate weight but can be slightly lacking in acidity so therefore makes a good blending partner with Sauvignon Blanc [...]

Bernhard Veller, cellarmaster at Durbanville winery Nitida is pretty intent on coming up with the ultimate Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon blend and in 2009 bottled three different versions namely Coronata, Coronata Integration and Aureus. Coronata straightaway becomes a rarity because thought it was tasted by both Wine magazine (4½ Stars) and Platter’s 2011 (4½ Stars), it is [...]

After a dry Sunday which followed a blow-out Saturday (old friends, a magnum of Graham Beck Brut 1994, various local examples of Pinot Noir), we thought we’d treat ourselves to something extra special last night: Cederberg Private Cellar Cape Winemakers Guild Semillon 2007. Though plantings of the variety remain small (1 167ha making up 1.2% [...]

Post the Nebbiolo tasting at Steenberg on Wednesday morning, an excellent lunch at on-site restaurant Bistro 1682 consisting of marrow bones on toast, followed by steak tartare, an animal protein blow-out that offset the high-natural acidity, high tannin wines left over from our earlier  endeavours. Once our repast was over, it was not difficult to [...]

Yesterday was spent writing introductions for the 2011 edition of Platter’s including that for Calitzdorp winery Axe Hill now owned by Johannesburg businessman Mike Neebe but originally founded by the late Tony Mossop, Cape Wine Master and renowned wine commentator. Mossop was panel chairman at WINE magazine when I started out there, and a big [...]

Paul Boutinot, one of the UK’s leading wine importers, set out in 1993 the world for a site capable of producing “truly fine wine with a defining sense of origin”. It would take him 10 years to find what he was looking for, and that was Waterkloof on the south-facing slopes of the Schaapenberg near [...]

One of the producers I will be reviewing for Platter’s 2011 is Constantia Uitsig and on Monday, I joined viticulturist and winemaker André Rosseau as well as marketing manager Francois Theunissen for a discussion of the new-release wines followed by lunch at La Colombe, twelfth on this year’s list of the world’s 50 best restaurants [...]