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In this year's Tim Atkin SA Report, Paul Clüver's commitment to crafting outstanding wines has earned notable recognition once again.

In this year's Tim Atkin SA Special Report, Paul Clüver Family Wines' unyielding commitment to crafting outstanding wines has earned notable recognition once again.

We are overjoyed to share the outstanding results from the Tim Atkin South African Special Report for 2023, where Paul Clüver Family Wines has once again claimed its place among the finest wines in South Africa.

These are wines that forge new paths in the wine industry and expand our knowledge about wine, wine regions and wine potential. At Haute Cabrière, creating new blends has always been at the heart of our wine philosophy.

Founder, Achim von Arnim, was the first Cellar Master in South Africa to use a blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir for Cap Classique production. After founding Haute Cabrière, he was then the first to produce the blend as a still wine - and our Chardonnay Pinot Noir remains a favourite across the country!

Cool, wet conditions during the winter of 2020 replenished water reserves and provided sufficient water to saturate soils and return water levels to pre-drought levels. This resulted in very vigorous growth in the vineyards, meaning careful vineyard management was required, especially to curb vigorous growth during spring. Flowering and fruit set conditions were ideal, with an average crop set, followed by a moderate growing season. We then experienced a cool ripening season in 2021, with late ripening and minimal precipitation during the harvest period. Ideal conditions that allowed grapes to ripen slowly, retaining good acidity while developing phenolics.

How different a year can be? Some would say the more things change, the more they stay the same!

I never understood that until I started working with the natural cycles of nature. We are so dependent on it, and year on year dawns a (not so new) realization that we are so under the sway of it. We may think that we hold some power over it, but in actual fact, it is nature that controls the factors that have the ultimate say over quality in any given vintage.

Today, 13 July, Delaire Graff Estate has ranked 36th internationally - by the World's Best Vineyards 2023, an annual list highlighting the finest and most diverse vineyards across the globe.

Owned by jeweller Laurence Graff OBE, Delaire Graff Estate is dedicated to beauty in its many forms. Much like polishing a diamond to reveal its brilliance, Graff has transformed an extraordinary natural setting into a world-class destination - renowned for its wine, hospitality, cuisine and contemporary African art collection.

The major topic of conversation in the Cape winelands has been - and still is - the exceptionally wet winter we are currently experiencing, once which will be talked about for years to come.

Those drenching summer rains continued into autumn, and with determination and a resistance to respite, continued until the end of June. Halfway through the year, De Wetshof has already seen 250mm of rain, some 50mm less than a good annual average, and only nature knows what lies ahead for the rest of 2023.

Meridian Wine Merchants has once again been named as the leading wine distributor in South Africa's on consumption sector, according to the latest Wine On-Premise Report on the local industry from Australian wine specialists survey company Wine Business Solutions (WBS). For its 2023 report on the state of wines listed and consumed in the South African hospitality sector, WBS surveyed some 40 000 individual listings on wine lists, including suburban restaurants, fine dining, hotels, pubs and clubs and game lodges, finding Meridian to be the top wine distributor in this environment responsible for 22.5% of all wines finding their way onto the wine lists of these establishments.

The just-released De Wetshof Limestone Hill, one of South Africa's most popular unwooded Chardonnays, emphasises the reputation 2023 is garnering for being a top vintage for white wines in the Cape, especially Chardonnay. This despite inclement weather and heavy rainfall playing havoc in the Cape winelands during the 2023 harvest season.

According to Johann de Wet, CEO of De Wetshof Estate in Robertson, the bulk of the farm’s Chardonnay vineyards had been harvested before the heavy rains fell on the winelands at the beginning of March.

Paul Clüver Family Wines in Elgin underscored its consistency as an award-winning wine producer in this year’s National Wine Challenge (NWC) by being announced joint-winner of this competition’s Vineyard Consistency Award for the most Top 100 places in the 13 year-history of the South African wine show.

The pioneering Elgin winery this year put-in another extraordinary showing in the NWC/Top 100 competition by winning two Grand Cru accolades for Best Wines in Class for the legendary Paul Clüver Seven Flags Pinot Noir 2018 and the Seven Flags Chardonnay 2021.