The remarkable track record of Ginny Povall’s under-the-radar Botanica Mary Delany Chenin Blanc makes it one of SA’s very best and most consistent Chenins. The 2015 has just been released and is an extraordinary wine having received four Platter’s 5-star ratingsin the last 5 years! Similarly, the 2011, 2013 (95 points), 2014 and 2015 (96 points) are some of the highest rated in Tim Atkin’s annual reports. Read more about Ginny's amazing Chenins
The De Trafford team have been carefully hand labelling, wrapping and packaging a wonderful collection of wines for you this winter. Every time it rains (and thankfully we've had plenty!), it's down to the cellar and when the beautiful winter sun comes out we're out in the vineyard pruning and fussing about! Read the full story
Christian Eedes reviewed the big man Donovan Rall's 2018 releases on May 25th in Winemag.co.za - always such a great source of information on Cape wines.
When Donovan Rall first started out back in 2008, there were just two wines, the White and the Red. The range has now expanded to seven (eight if you count the Pét-Nat made exclusively for the Japanese market) but the overall quality is as high as ever.
Read what Christian has to say about these extraordinary wines
Any well-informed observer of the Cape wine scene would readily mention in this context the name Sadie (rhymes with Hardy). It was the admirable Eben (pronounced 'earbin') Sadie who put Swartland, focus of new-wave Cape wine, on the international map with his Sadie Family bottlings.
But another Sadie is increasingly a force to be reckoned with. For obvious reasons, David Sadie does not use his surname for his magnificent range of Swartland wines. I first came across his wine four years ago in a Cotswold hotel that happens to be close to the home of the Cathay Pacific pilot who used to be his principal UK importer. A 2012 Grenache labelled simply David leapt out of the glass to land as a wine of the week. Refreshing Grenache is no longer a novelty now that we have a host from places such as the Gredos Mountains, McLaren Vale and the south of France, but in 2014 I described this Swartland wine as 'mould-breaking. Mineral somehow and beautifully balanced, even delicate. Not too sweet. Very appetising and clearly lovingly made. A triumph!'
When that wine was made, David and his soil-scientist wife Nadia were in full-time work elsewhere, making a tiny amount of wine in their spare time in rented space. The 2016 vintage was the first that saw them established in their own winery on the slopes of the Paardeberg, on what David describes as 'a lifestyle farm' owned jointly by a Norwegian and a local. They now have some of their own vineyards, and take fruit from others on the basis of a handshake, as is the way for the numerous young guns in Swartland.
"Marelise Niemann is a champion of Grenache. Her label, Momento, began officially in 2013, when she was still working at Beaumont in the Bot River region of South Africa. But it was in 2011 the she bought her first parcel of grapes: she shared the grapes from a vineyard in the north of the Swartland with Donovan Rall - Jamie Goode " Read More.
Apart from her wonderful Grenache, I love her Chenin Blanc Verdelho white blend - such a beauty. And this year, she has released a 2017 Grenache Gris which has been much admired but yet to be tasted by me.
Watch Marelise Niemann as she chats with Jamie Goode about her love of Grenache
Kinnegar Wines was born almost by accident and been growing organically since.
In 1998, I was in the midde of a two year diploma course with the London Wine & Spirits Trust when an opportunity came up to visit South Africa's Western Cape. Naturally, I was keen to avail of the opportunity to learn more about viticulture and winemaking in South Africa.
We had an excellent guide who brought us to a number of the Cape's leading estates including Thelema and De Trafford where we had in depth vineyard and cellars tours. At the end of the day, I wanted to take back some of the wonderful wines we had tasted for our own use. It was not possible to take two or three cases of wine with us on our flight and shipping such a small quantity was more than the cost of wines. So I had the mad idea of shipping a pallet! Clearly, I had to start selling these wines and so began Kinnegar Wines. Ashford Castle took many of the wines and continue to list them and newer arrivals ever since.