Up bright and early on Monday morning to head into Cape Town for the Chenin Blanc Association conference. Chenin is a super grape and South Africa has half of the…
Cape Wine, day 1
So I arrived with a jolly bunch of UK journalists in Cape Town, on a cold and rainy day. We’re all on slightly different itineraries here, so some of us…
First look at a new high-end Pinotage from Flagstone
The wonderful Bruce Jack sent me a bottle of a new wine that he’s making under his Flagstone label. Just 200o bottles of this Pinotage, from a single vineyard high…
Weekend in the country, and three rich whites: Chile, South Africa and France
The long bank holiday weekend provided an ideal opportunity for a family get together. Remarkably, we managed to find a house big enough to take 15 on budget in the…
Mullineux Schist and Granite 2010
Swartland-based Mullineux is one of the most respected of the new wave of South African wine estates, and in the 2012 Platter Guide they achieved a remarkable clean sweep of…
The South Africa Wine and Spirits Board reject Craig Hawkins Cortez Chenin Blanc 2011 for a second time!
I have written before about how export approval systems in New World wine-producing countries can hinder producers who operate outside the commercial norms (here: http://www.wineanorak.com/exportapproval.htm) It’s a big problem for natural…
Lunch at the Glasshouse, Kew, with Brian and Marion Smith of Elgin Ridge
Kew’s Glasshouse has to be one of the best places to lunch in London. It’s the sister restaurant to the equally impressive La Trompette in Chiswick, and together this pair…
Sink the Pink Pinotage!
I’ve ranted here before about how stupid the export approval systems in some countries can be. They are well intentioned: for a wine to be exported from South Africa and…
Two great older whites: Burgundy and South Africa
Had these two fabulous older whites, and thought they deserved a blog post of their own. Both have aged beautifully. Domaine Marc Morey 1er Cru Virondot Chassagne Montrachet 1999 Burgundy,…