Marcel Lanžhotský: Chladné počasí ohrožuje letošní úrodu vína, může negativně ovlivnit celý trh
Jiří Radocha: Lidé jsou zahraničními víny přesyceni, vrací se k českým odrůdám
Hodí se víno k zabijačkovým a masopustním hodům? A jaké?
Sto nejlepších moravských a českých vín pro rok 2013 - Salon vín ČR
Nejlepší víno Salonu vín 2013 je Chardonnay 2011 ze Zámeckého vinařství Bzenec.
At this very moment of writing, a guy on a plane is bringing me a bottle of wine. The wine is a Domaine Mugnier Clos de Marechale 2015 and I bought it for R1 250. This is more than double the price of the Kanonkop Paul Sauer of the same vintage, one of the most […]
Kanonkop Paul Sauer 2015 has become the first South African wine to receive 100pts in the annual report on the South African wine industry by respected British wine judge, journalist and critic Tim Atkin MW. For his seventh South African report, which has just been released, Atkin tasted 1 986 wines from throughout the country, […]
The animal is there, the question being what are you going to do about it? At a monumental Pinotage tasting held in the Braemar domain of Anthony and Olive Hamilton Russell, a gathering of wine-makers, insightful marketers and lonely scribes assessed a line-up of wines drawn from a broad spectrum. Some familiar Pinotages were allowed […]
I really thought hell would freeze over before a bunch of rural Breedekloof winemakers would be eating raw fish at an Italian joint in Cape Town while talking about their Chenin Blanc wines. And while hell is still blazing, apparently, it was cold enough to freeze the scrotum on a brass monkey when the Breedekloof […]
It is a feature of the wine world that some human DNA has become embedded in certain grape varieties. In South Africa, for example, it’s impossible to think of Chardonnay without seeing the formidable presence of Danie de Wet from De Wetshof before you. And who can pronounce “Pinotage” without mentioning Beyers Truter in the […]
This is the second year I ran into Amanda Barnes, British wine writer and judge based in Mendoza, Argentina, at the Michelangelo Wine & Spirits Awards. Between flights of vino I got her talking on what she’d been tasting. Michelangelo Judge Amanda Barnes on Sauvignon Blanc and Shiraz Judging for this year’s Michelangelo International Wine […]
History is the thing, and amateur historian Lafras Huguenet translates the rare slave diary of Duferius of Angola from Portuguese. Monday, 6 August 1792 Our keeper, Sluithol, cruised in at day-break to unlock us for what promises to be a helluva working week filled with tremendous excitement and thrilling activities. Nekka of Bengal and his […]
The tuxedos are being aired and pearls polished, for this is now the official awards season in the South African wine industry. With the invitations flocking into my in-box with greater frequency than unsolicited photographs of Melania Trump and requests for trinchado recipes, I am reflecting on the status of wine shows. Again. Two are […]
by Lafras Huguenet Situated en route to my fishing abode at Blombos, I have stopped off at De Wetshof in Robertson since the mid-1990s to stock-up for the coming days’ pulling galjoen, mussel-cracker and Steenbras from the droning white waters on South Africa’s most beautiful piece of coast-line. Being a fond consumer of Chardonnay, this […]
Each year my clients and I sit down and discuss the merits of entering wine competitions in general, and then go through the list of shows on offer before making a decision on which to enter. If any. Things are becoming more selective in this regard. First, entries fees could see a fairly range-heavy producer […]
If there is ever to be a comprehensive study on truly successful South African wine brands, I’ll be ignoring the results if Vin de Constance does not appear at the very top. As they say in the classics, when it comes to this brand, what’s not to like? First, there is the unrivalled provenance which […]
Alan Parker’s magnificently terrifying film Midnight Express did about as much damage to the Turkish tourism industry as Patricia de Lille’s brain-dead managing of Cape Town’s water crisis has done in eradicating tourist-related income to the Western Cape summer past. In Parker’s film – based on a true-story – an American visitor to Turkey gets […]
South Africa has a number of wine groupings each representing and promoting specific grape cultivars, the activities of whom vary from blossoming and busy to cold and dormant. On the blossoming side, the Merlot Forum is headed up by an energetic bunch of wine makers keen to underscore the fact that Merlot is not only […]
Pumping hot lead into the head of a sleeping baboon might work in ridding your wine farm from a troop of primates causing wanton destruction including hungrily uprooting vines, stealing organic seed-loaf from restaurants and the non-consensual shagging of the farm manager’s spayed Labrador, Tina. But as the farms of Constantia who stealthily deployed these […]
While contributing towards economic realities, this collective wailing about South African wine being too cheap is a one-sided affair. For in this call for higher prices, fair remuneration and a premium image, those calling for a pricier proposition are not including the interests of the most important part of the wine industry, namely the customer. […]
To go tasting Madeira wine, you stop in downtown Funchal, capital of this magical volcanic island in the Atlantic and closer to Africa than it is to Portugal. Jacaranda trees are in full mauve bloom, and grassy public spaces show bright with red and yellow and pink flowers which add to the realisation that Madeira […]
Anyone with a nose to the local wine industry will have heard industry pundits, propagandists and prophets implying that this country’s wines are undervalued. Which is nothing more than a euphemism hinting that local and international consumers should be paying bigger for South African wines, and producers should be charging more. In terms of ensuring […]
We had just stopped to see the waterfalls of Madeira when appetite struck. All that oxygen-rich air spilling in from the dense green plant growth and flowing out of the Atlantic Ocean had made us hungry like wolves, and the bowl of peanuts with the granadilla rum punch back in Funchal was not helping. The […]
I am standing 400m up on a mountain overlooking the town of Stellenbosch, Table Mountain lurking in the distance. The steep slopes are covered with vines, as are those on the other side of the Jonkershoek Valley. Directly below, the white-washed old buildings of Lanzerac hotel and winery sparkle in the midday sun. I brace […]
In what is turning out to be an extraordinary year for Durbanville-based Diemersdal Wine Estate in terms of wine awards, the Diemersdal Private Collection 2016 won the Riedel Trophy for Best Bordeaux-style Red Blend at this year’s prestigious Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show. This accolade follows the estate’s superb showing at the recent International Wine […]
