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Yvonne Lester, committee member of the Merlot Forum – also known as Hallo Merlot! – and head winemaker at Rupert & Rothschild Vignerons, talks about her career and Merlot.

One of South Africa’s top red wine cellars, the Stellenbosch producer is unrivalled as a Pinotage specialist with a range of four single-varietal expressions of South Africa’s most successful ‘indigenous’ wine grape cultivar, three Pinotage-led Cape Blends, one of the very few white wines in which the variety plays a role (together with Chenin Blanc), as well as a Pinotage Rosé and even a Cape Port with Pinotage at the helm. And wow, how the flagships have been showered with praise in 2018.

I have a real soft spot for Chenin Blanc, half of my father’s vineyard was planted to this grape, originally from the Loire Valley, though its plantings here are six times the size of the French vineyards. Chenin Blanc is also the largest planted wine grape in the winelands. Chenin Blanc was the first wine bottled on Simonsig Wine Estate by founder Frans Malan in 1968, so the 50th year this year of wine harvests on Simonsig. 

Regarded as the divisive varietal, Chardonnay seems to have gone out of and come back into fashion in more ways than one. However, this time it seems to be sticking around for good and has become the wine of choice for most wine enthusiasts throughout the year.

Tokara Sauvignon Blanc has been ranked a Top 100 Wine of 2018 by the editors of Wine Enthusiast, the highly regarded and most authoritative wine publication in the USA.

The Celebration of Chardonnay began 14 years ago as a modest ode to what Danie de Wet from De Wetshof has been doing so very well and what has consumed him for the better part of his life: the Chardonnay grape; the wines it makes; the people who make it; and the legacy it has left. And, too, the bridges of greatness it shall still cross.

Winemag.co.za is pleased to release the sixth annual Sauv-Sem Blend/Wooded Sauvignon Blanc Report now sponsored by precision agriculture service provider Aerobotics. There were 41 blends entered from 37 producers while for the second time, Wooded Sauvignon Blanc was included, and here we had 19 examples from 16 producers.

Sauvignon Blanc is a green-skinned grape variety which originates from the Bordeaux region of France. The grape gets its name from the French word sauvage (“wild”) and blanc (“white”) due to its early origins as an indigenous grape in South West France.

Throughout history the delicate bubbles of sparkling wine inspired humans to greatness. Though the French first created it in the eponymous region of Champagne, most wine producing countries have managed to create equality in bubbles: Prosecco, Cava, Sekt, simply sparkling wine or as it is locally known, Méthode Cap Classique.