What I Drank Last Night

The Rudera brand has had its ups and downs in recent times but finally seems to have a happy and potentially prosperous future ahead of it. It was founded by renowned winemaker Teddy Hall and wife Riana in 1999 but when they split, ownership fell to Riana and a succession of winemakers followed.  Wines under [...]

Publication of my ratings of the wines to be sold on the Cape Winemakers Guild auction (see here) has caused some controversy. Teddy Hall said he was initially “devastated” when his Hendrik Biebouw Auction Reserve Chenin Blanc 2010 received a score of only 85 on the 100-point scale in light of the fact that prominent [...]

I’m still waiting for my April issue of Decanter to arrive in the letter box, but a recent posting on A Word from the Herd, the Fairview Wine blog alerted me to a tasting report in the UK magazine that is going to upset many local Chenin Blanc producers. Out of 155 wines tasted, Fairview’s [...]

How wine styles change. The Rudera Robusto Chenin Blanc 2002 which won the 2005 Wine magazine Chenin Blanc Challenge famously had a residual sugar of 15.7g/l. It picked up 4½ Stars then, a rating it retained  when a retrospective of previous winners was undertaken for the February 2010 issue. If Sauvignon Blanc becomes more like [...]

De Trafford winemaker David Trafford won the WINE magazine Challenge in 2000 and again in 2002 (jointly with Teddy Hall) so his capability with Chenin is well established. According to the De Trafford website, grapes for this wine come from vineyards ranging in age from 21 to 35 years in Helderberg, Stellenbosch. The wine was [...]

When Rudera Robusto 2002 won the 2005 WINE magazine Chenin Blanc Challenge with a residual sugar of 15.7g/l, I recall suggesting to winemaker Teddy Hall that it might be tricky to pair with food. To which, he replied that it was the sort of wine that should be drunk on its own! After business couple [...]

Lunch yesterday was at Pete Goffe-Wood’s  Wild Woods bistro and bar next to the Chapman’s Peak Hotel in Hout Bay. The menu advises that “everything is cooked from scratch” and the food took a good while to emerge from the kitchen. This gave us plenty of time to peruse the winelist and Goffe- Wood deserves [...]