From the category archives:

South Africa

Klein Constantia Marlbrook 2007

November 9, 2011
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Plenty of French wine has passed my lips recently, which meant the powerful presence of this interesting South African blend caught me unaware. For some reason I wasn’t expecting a whole lot. I thought this Bordeaux-style combo of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc would be pleasant enough but no more. It’s a [...]

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Spice Route Mourvèdre 2008

September 1, 2011
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In terms of simplicity and effectiveness of design, I think this South African red is up there with the best wines I’ve seen. Look at that label. What a colour! Amateur detective work on my part identifies it as #CC5E45, a by-no-means-famous middle-ground between Dark Orange, a shade of Coral, and possibly (raw) Salmon. Call [...]

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Porcupine Ridge Syrah Viognier 2009

August 24, 2011
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Continuing with my animal-on-the-label-theme here, you wouldn’t expect to choose a Porcupine as the most endearing or glamorous animal to represent a bottle of wine. It seems as if everyone is getting in on the act though and the more exotic the animal on the label the better the chances of someone saying “Ooh, look, [...]

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Vriesenhof Kallista 2004

August 1, 2011
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The major disadvantage of supermarkets dominating the retail sale of wine is that sometimes it can be difficult to find something different or a bit special produced by an independent, smaller and more boutique estate or vineyard. The big supermarket chains force huge discounts on their suppliers that only really those that produce huge volumes [...]

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Suikerbossie ‘I Want You’ Pinotage Petit Verdot 2009

July 29, 2011
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The charming simplicity of the label design was what attracted me to this little bottle. The graphics have a few lovely touches, not least the foliage sprouting from the bar code on the reverse label (see below); there was also the fact that – as far as I can recall – I’ve never seen these [...]

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Manley Shiraz 2007

July 18, 2011
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This wine has been lurking in my box from online retailer Naked Wines for some time now. Not that I’ve been putting it off drinking it for fear of a wack wine, more like I’ve been waiting for the right occasion to do it justice. At £12.50 it’s more than I usually spend on a [...]

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Goats Do Roam – The Goatfather, 2009

July 14, 2011
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Such is the success of the Goats Do Roam label in capturing the imagination of the humour-starved wine world that its brand name redirects to an actual ‘Wine humour‘ page on Wikipedia. The page isn’t that long, but good on Charles Back for getting his name on there. I remember Goats Do Roam from my [...]

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Arabella Shiraz 2010

April 28, 2011
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I’ve been a fan of rich, spicy and  flavoursome Australian Shirazes for a while. When you’re relatively new to the world of wine, their strident flavours and  intoxicating nature are easy to notice and, if you’ve a taste for it, easy to love. More recently I’ve been exploring different avenues grape wise, paying attention to subtleties [...]

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Stellenzicht Rhapsody 2004

April 8, 2011
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South African winemakers have been in a bit of a quandary regarding Pinotage in the last few decades but now seem more assured with what to do with this grape variety as it is increasingly being used as a blending component to lend backbone, structure and a bit of New World exotic elegance to wine [...]

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Raats Cabernet Franc 2007

March 21, 2011
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Cabernet Franc is an under-rated grape variety, in my opinion, and not many wine lovers get a chance to appreciate it in its individual glory as it is primarily used for blending. One of the two parent grapes of Cabernet Sauvignon (Sauvignon Blanc being the other), it is often overshadowed by its sibling and its [...]

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Neethlingshof Malbec 2009

March 14, 2011
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Every cloud has a silver lining. If my local Waitrose had not burned down a few years back I probably would never have got to try this wine and for that I’m grateful. Of course, I am not about to go out and torch every Waitrose so they get rebuilt with better wine sections but [...]

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