Canadian wine journalist Treve Ring and I have been doing some filming each day at ProWein, 2017. With 58 000 visitors this year, it’s a huge wine trade fair,…
Video: what makes Elgin a special wine region?
In this video clip, I interview Andrew Gunn of Iona, and his winemaker Werner Muller, about what makes the Elgin Valley a special wine region. We also talk about Elgin’s…
Elgin vintage experience 4, Elgin Ridge
The final day of my Elgin vintage experience 2017 was spent with biodynamic winery Elgin Ridge. This is a film of the day: We went to the vineyards where Sauvignon…
Elgin vintage experience 3, Almenkerk
Day 3 of my Elgin harvest experiences was at Almenkerk, hosted by owners Joris van Almenkerk and Natalie Opstaele. They are great fun and have a really thoughtful, scientific approach…
Elgin vintage experience 1, Iona
The first day of my vintage experience in South Africa’s Elgin region was spent at Iona. I was with Werner Muller, the winemaker, for the day. Iona have three properties:…
Niepoort’s Clos de Crappe: an unusual, remarkable wine
You can’t put Dirk Niepoort in a box. He’s not your standard winemaker. Who releases a wine called ‘Clos de Crappe’ with the description ‘technically a disaster’? (See above from…
The New Douro Tasting 2016
So, today: the New Douro Tasting at the gritty Vinyl Factory in Soho. I went and tasted widely. I’d just been in the Douro with the Douro Boys, so I…
Video: Elgin from the air
Here’s a short film and some pictures from my gyrocopter flight over Elgin with Ian Corder. It was an amazing experience. But gyrocopters are tiny and it was a little…
Video: interviewing Adi Badenhorst about his new wines
I caught up with Adi Badenhorst at Intrepid last week. He’s got some new wines out. Two in particular really appealed to me: a flor-aged Sauvignon Blanc called John Strikes…