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The Tokara winemaking team is on top of the world with three Wines of the Year and nine wines, starring Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon in the leading role, scoring 91 points or more in Tim Atkin’s much anticipated South Africa 2021 Special Report.

Top achiever this year is the TELOS 2016 on 96/100. His second highest score of 95 points goes to the Director’s Reserve Red 2018, with the Reserve Collection Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 and the Tokara Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 scoring 94 and 91 respectively.

The highest scoring Tokara white wine is the signature Director’s Reserve White 2018 on 95 points. The other stand-out whites are the Reserve Collection Chardonnay 2019 and the Reserve Collection Elgin Sauvignon Blanc 2020 both on 93 points.

Also standing tall on 93 points is the ultra-elegant Tokara Cap Classique 2013, while the Reserve Collection Syrah 2017 fetched 92 points.

Delaire Graff Estate achieves excellence in the 2021 Haute Grandeur Global Awards.

We are honoured to announce that Delaire Graff Lodges & Spa has received a number of accolades in the recently announced 2021 Haute Grandeur Global Excellence Awards. The Awards recognise remarkable achievements in delivering consistent, exceptional experiences in the global luxury hospitality industry.

Delaire Graff Lodges & Spa has been named as the best in class on the global stage in the Haute Grandeur Global Hotel Awards in both the Culinary Experience and Lodge categories. The lodge also achieved the designation Best Destination Hotel in Africa and the Delaire Graff Owner’s Villa was announced as the Best Boutique Villa in Africa.

Delaire Graff Spa received four titles in the Haute Grandeur Global Spa Awards acknowledging the impeccable standards upheld by Spa Director, Hildegard Carstens, named Best Spa Manager. Further awards included Best Luxury Spa and Best Hideaway Spa in Africa, as well as Best Hotel Spa in South Africa.

Long before the Shiraz wave hit South Africa in the 1990s, the Durbanville Wine Valley was pioneering this loved Rhône variety. The cool maritime climate and soils of decomposed granite and clay have always provided an ideal terroir for Shiraz in a classic, restrained style compared to the more opulent offerings of warmer regions.

This special offer of Diemersdal Shiraz consists of one bottle of each of the following vintages: 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, with two bottles of the very fine 2020 making up the balance. And these wines come with a pedigree of accolades: 2016 won a Gold Veritas medal, 2018 took Gold at the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show, as did the 2019 at the Michelangelo International Wine & Spirits Awards. And with the awards season coming up, we are predicting great things from the 2020 as well.

The variety has been a stalwart at Diemersdal for decades, the vineyard loving the area’s cold winters and mild summers, and wine-lovers really enjoying the feature of Shiraz made in this part of the Cape winelands. Juandré Bruwer, one of Diemersdal’s winemakers and a passionate Shiraz acolyte, says that cool-climate Shiraz is his favourite style of this wine.

“When the grapes ripen in a cool climate, such as Diemersdal, the wine is bright, fresh with gorgeous red-fruit,” he says.

Cape winemakers can hardly afford to be one-trick ponies. Unlike their Old World brethren who spend most of their lives committed to working a handful of grape varieties into two to three wine-styles, South African vignerons must tap into the national vinous psyche. Which in most instances demands an almost promiscuous approach in handling a vastly diverse array of grape varieties and wine-styles under one umbrella brand.

Here in the New South, it is not uncommon to find one winery happily producing Sauvignon Blanc, Grenache, Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Pinotage and Merlot – with a Cap Classique bubbly or two thrown in for good measure. Port and Noble Late Harvest, optional. It is wild and varied, and we like it.

Specialisation is a rare luxury afforded only a few winemakers. Although, there are a handful of Cape winemakers whose skill with a certain variety has risen to the surface; the yin meeting yang, the experience, craftmanship and commitment offering the consumer a guarantee of something exceptional. Danie de Wet and Chardonnay springs to mind. Beyers Truter and Pinotage. Jan Boland Coetzee with Pinot Noir, while Sauvignon Blanc happens rather well when handled by Thys Louw.

The South African Chardonnay Forum has been re-launched under the chairmanship of Johann de Wet, CEO of De Wetshof Estate. In a heart-to-heart Q&A he outlines the objectives and flies the flag for Cape Chardonnay.

Q: What role does a cultivar grouping, such as the Chardonnay Forum, play?

Johann de Wet: Well, I’d like to start by saying that this grouping had been dormant for a few years, so at the end of 2020 we did a re-launch after talks with South Africa’s Chardonnay producers. These discussions, and the decision to re-look this specific cultivar grouping, were inspired by the astounding positive reception Cape Chardonnay has been getting – local and internationally – over the past few years. Positive comment, plus the undeniable quality of Chardonnay we are currently seeing, inspired myself and a few like-minded industry players to get the forum back on track.

As far as the role of such groupings, I don’t think there is one overriding ethos and vision representing all such collectives. Like the country’s wines and the different terroir they represent, we all have unique traits. The SA Chardonnay Forum aims to provide a platform committed to two aspects. First, to use the forum to share technical information as well as to identify these pertinent topics and issues for communicating.

Tokara, the prestigious family owned Stellenbosch wine estate, celebrates the 50th anniversary of Cap Classique with a Double Gold medal awarded in France for the new 2013 blanc de blancs vintage.

Claiming its rightful place on the international stage as a South African Cap Classique, Tokara’s 2013 vintage garnered 93/100 points at the Gilbert & Gaillard International Challenge held annually by one of France’s leading wine guides.

The third offering of this consummate Méthode Cap Classique was crafted entirely from Tokara’s outstanding cool climate Chardonnay vineyard in Elgin. The extraordinary depth of flavour, elegance and complexity of the 2013 vintage can be attributed to barrel maturation of the base wine for eight months followed by seven years on the lees in the bottle to develop richness and finesse.

The mousse is exceptionally fine and consistent, enlivened by aromas of lightly toasted almonds, lemon preserve and a hint of fresh green apple. These zesty aromas are enriched on the palate by freshly baked gougère.

“The finest of bubblies, the palate is a wonderful interplay between silky fluidity, crystalline acidity and fine mousse. It is incredibly moreish and will leave you yearning for another sip,” says winemaker Stuart Botha.

David Josephus Nieuwoudt was born on 9 May 1972 in the Citrusdal Hospital – the youngest of five children. During 1990 he finished school in Clanwilliam. After completing a year in the old SA Army, David joined the Elsenburg Agricultural College where he excelled as a student. After completing his studies, he worked at Lievland for a year under the strict eye of Paul Benade. At the end of 1996 he moved back to the Cederberg Wines and took over the winemaking reins from his uncle, Oom Flippie Nieuwoudt.

Three years later Cederberg Private Cellar was awarded a 4.5-star rating in the 1999 edition of the Platter’s SA Wine Guide – for a Chardonnay.

Today, these Chardonnay grapes are being processed for a vintage Méthode Cap Classique.

In 2004 the Cederberg Shiraz 2002 won the award for the best red wine in South Africa.

During 2008 the Cederberg Shiraz 2006 was awarded an International Trophy for the Best Rhône-style wine at the annual Decanter World Wine awards.

Cederberg Shiraz 2014 took out top Trophy honors against the very best New World Shiraz/Syrah style wines from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Chile, the USA & South Africa at the 2016 Six Nations Wine Challenge.

Diemersdal, the Durbanville wine estate which has been under ownership of the Louw family for six generations, has become the first wine farm in the Durbanville wine region to achieve WWF Conservation Champion status.

This unique wine initiative, managed by the World Wide Fund for Nature and unique to the Cape winelands, underscores the local wine industry's commitment to conservation, the close relationship between wine farmers and their natural environment, and the indigenous natural setting where the country's wines are made.

The WWF Conservation Champions, represented by 45 Cape wine farms, showcases the extraordinary measures local winegrowers have gone to protect and conserve the inimitable natural habitat situated in and around their farms.

Diemersdal received its official status as WWF Conservation Champion in July this year after numerous thorough audits by WWF field officers who manage this programme.

Diemersdal's emphatic conservation credentials include its preservation of a 16.8ha conservation area on one of the farms pristine hills on which a number of scarce renosterveld plant species are found. This conservation area spans the Dorsberg, the most northern hill range within the Tygerberg cluster.

The just-released De Wetshof Limestone Hill, one of South Africa's most popular unwooded Chardonnays, emphasises the reputation 2021 is garnering for being a top vintage for white wines in the Cape, especially Chardonnay.

According to Johann de Wet, CEO of De Wetshof Estate in Robertson, the fact that this year's harvest was characterised by cool, mild conditions is well reported. But with the wines now bottled and in the market, the magnificent quality of the season's offering is coming to the fore.

"This year's harvest commenced two-to-three weeks later than the average," says de Wet, "the reason being a cool, mild spring, the conditions continuing into summer. This caused the whole vineyard cycle of bud-break, flowering, berry-set and ripening of grapes to slow down. Here in Robertson we could literally count the number of 30°C and warmer days on one hand. And as a result, our Chardonnays are truly showing exceptional quality this year."

De Wet says cooler, slower ripening allows for balanced chemistries in the grapes – should one choose to look at the academic side of things. "What is evident for all is the bright, crunchy freshness we saw in the harvested grapes as they arrived at the cellar, as well as this zesty life-affirming energy now evident in the latest release of our Limestone Hill," he says.