What I Drank Last Night

What is to become of the Chenin Blanc Challenge now that Wine magazine is no longer? Held for the first time in 1996, it was the longest running of any of the wine competitions convened by the title and played at least a small role in rehabilitating the reputation of the variety. Over the course [...]

Yesterday was the third anniversary of my dad Harold’s death so supper with mum and a chance to raid the cellar. Nothing too special after lunch at top Cape Town restaurant Bizerca courtesy of Flat Roof Manor but at least something not entirely beneath his memory. Domaine Drouhin Laurène Oregon Pinot Noir 2000 proved big, [...]

Land’s End Syrah 2008 is the winner of the eighth annual Wine magazine Shiraz Challenge, this year sponsored by BRENN-O-KEM, which processes wine industry by-products. Wine of Origin Elim but the Land’s End brand is owned by Dave Hidden of Hidden Valley Wines in Stellenbosch and grapes are trucked across to the cellar, where Louis [...]

With at least some Shiraz enthusiasts on tenterhooks regarding who will be announced winner of the eighth annual and apparently last Wine magazine Shiraz Challenge (this year sponsored by Brenn-O-Kem), let me alert you to the rather good Nederburg The Winemaster’s Reserve Shiraz 2009 costing R65 a bottle from the tasting room. Grapes are from [...]

Yesterday the 2009, 1999, 1989 and 1979 vintages of Red Muscadel from Robertson estate Rietvallei. Maiden vintage under own label was 1975 and early bottlings were adorned with a crest inadvertently appropriated from the Spanish royal family, removed after a terse letter from the true owners. Read the full story about Rietvallei Muscadel with particular [...]

The official media release from RamsayMedia regarding the closure of Wine magazine: Media Release 8 July 2011 Wine goes digital RamsayMedia announced today that the September 2011 issue of Wine magazine will be the final printed edition of this venerable publication. “While we are excited by the possibilities of the core offering moving from print [...]

High alcohols on South African wines has been much debated in recent times but what of the matter of residual sugars which also seem to be creeping ever upwards? Sweetness can be seductive, the Obikwa Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 a recent case in point, its RS of over 5g/l (and hence technically semi-sweet) no impediment to [...]

Colleague Angela Lloyd wrote an article for the April issue of WineLand magazine on what makes a good wine judge. Towards this, she put a set of questions to various local and international judges. Here are my answers: 1) Why do you act as a judge? Having stumbled into wine writing, I quickly realised that [...]

Those luckily enough to have tasted Pinotage from the 1970s will know that the variety is capable of very good, even great wine. However, in the modern era, it has gone through ups and downs, or rather downs and ups, wines from the mid-1990s very much more clumsy and rustic than they are now, local [...]

Though Anura is situated on the Paarl-facing slopes of the Simonsberg, this ambitious winery quickly worked out that if it was going to have a Sauvignon Blanc to compete at the top end then it needed to have access to cool-climate grapes and hence this Reserve 2009 being Wine of Origin Darling. On release, it [...]