Revisiting the wines of Doran Vineyards, Voor Paardeberg, South Africa
Website: https://www.doranvineyards.com/home/ Back in 2010 Edwin Doran bought a vineyard in Voor Paardeberg as a retirement gift to himself. Sadly,
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South Africa
Highlights: Klein Constantia Vin de Constance 2023 South Africa
This is the latest vintage of one of the world’s great sweet wines. It’s the Vin de Constance from Klein
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Highlights: Cecilia Wines Cinsault 2025 Piekenierskloof, South Africa
Cinsault was historically a hugely important red grape for South Africa. Often, red ‘varietals’ from fancy grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon
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Vergelegen: the first release of the top wines under new winemaker Luke O’Cuinneagain
I visited Vergelegen a while ago, seeing how this celebrated wine estate has emerged from a period of underperformance under
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Brunia, an exciting cool-climate wine project from South Africa’s Walker Bay
Website: https://www.bruniawines.co.za/ This is an exciting project owned by the Sander family, and it’s in a relatively unknown winegrowing region
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Swartberg Wingerde: the amazing Piekeneerskloof wines of Rudiger Gretschel
Website: https://swartbergwingerde.co.za/ When Rudiger Gretschel (pictured above) was being interviewed for his job with Tim Rands (Boekenhoutskloof et al), he
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New releases from Stellenbosch star Meerlust
I’ve written up the wines of Meerlust quite extensively here in the past, and most recently from a visit to
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Fryer’s Cove: precise wines from the cool west coast of South Africa
Website: https://www.fryerscove.co.za/ It was back in 1999 that Jan Van Zyl planted one of South Africa’s most distinctive vineyards right
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Glenelly is making some increasingly impressive wines from its vineyard on the Simonsberg, Stellenbosch
Website: https://glenellyestate.com/ Glenelly is Stellenbosch with a French accent. Back in 2004 former Château Pichon-Longueville-Lalande owner May de Lencquesaing purchased
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Boekenhoutskloof: a vertical of Semillon, and the 2023 new releases from this top South African winery
If any observer of the South African wine scene were to make a list of the top 10 producers, then
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