{"id":1378,"date":"2010-10-08T15:32:48","date_gmt":"2010-10-08T15:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/?p=1378"},"modified":"2010-10-08T16:06:25","modified_gmt":"2010-10-08T16:06:25","slug":"day-3-south-africa-the-elgin-marvels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/south-africa\/day-3-south-africa-the-elgin-marvels","title":{"rendered":"Day 3, South Africa – the Elgin marvels"},"content":{"rendered":"

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My first visit to Elgin! One of the goals of this trip is to visit regions that previously I’d missed – Elgin, Elim, Hemel-en-Aarde.<\/p>\n

So it was off to Iona this morning, to visit the vineyards with Andrew Gunn (above<\/em>) and then taste with a group of producers: Paul Cluver, Oak Valley, Shannon and Iona.<\/p>\n

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This is a genuinely cool climate region: a plateau at altitude surrounded by mountains, with altitude ranging from 300-600 metres above sea level.<\/p>\n

Andries Burger and Paul Cluver began the tasting with a pair of 1997 Sauvignons: one the regular, unoaked version; the second a barrel-fermented style. They were both remarkably good, but the barrel-fermented wine was fresher, with purer fruit, and was just delicious. Who’d have thought it?<\/p>\n

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There’s something special about Elgin. I tried a range of wines, including some serious Riesling, serious Sauvignon (look out for Iona 2010 – brilliant), and great Chardonnay. There were even reds: a cool-climate Syrah, Pinot Noirs in different styles, and a silky Merlot. The standard of the wines was really high. Full write-up to follow. I came away enthused, and with a full belly after a wonderful lunch prepared by Andrew’s wife Rosie.<\/p>\n

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My first visit to Elgin! One of the goals of this trip is to visit regions that previously I’d missed – Elgin, Elim, Hemel-en-Aarde. So it was off to Iona…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[374],"class_list":["post-1378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-south-africa","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1378"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1393,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1378\/revisions\/1393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}