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With uncertainty about land reform and a lack of economic growth, it is easy to be negative about the bigger picture for South African wine in 2019. But the takeaways from the annual Vinpro wine industry day, makes me see a glass that is half full.

Although I couldn’t attend South Africa’s most important wine industry information day, I am so thankful for getting real-time updates from the enthusiastic twitterati and after hearing the thoughts of colleagues who attended the event, I even dare to share some interpretations.

Q. When and where were you born ?

“I was born in Durban, South Africa in 1985.”

Q. Where did you study and what qualifications do you have ?

“I studied winemaking and viticulture at Elsenburg Agricultural College, qualifying with a B.Agric Viticulture and Oenology in 2006.”

La Motte Wine Estate has been appointed as the 2019 Drinks International Wine Tourism Awards Winner for Best Food and Wine Matching Experience for an unprecedented fifth time!

The historic estate in the Franschhoek Wine Valley, acclaimed as South Africa’s culinary hotspot, has also received this exceptional recognition in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2018.

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.