South African high end retailer can barely do a thing wrong with Alan Mullins heading up the company’s wine division. The Longmarket range continues to delight with quality wines at everyday prices like the Wet Rocks Sauvignon Blanc 2009 selling for only R34.95 ($4.5).
Wet Rocks Sauvignon Blanc 2009
Notes of granadilla, peach and pineapple tantalize and on the palate, the perky lime refreshes.
For sultry, summer Cape Town nights this is a lovely thirst quencher.
Tags: Alan Mullins, Cape Town, sauvignon blanc, Woolworths
We are totally blown away by the quality of this inexpensive wine. This is an exceptionally smooth wine with an old world character and a steal at R37.95 ($5) . We tried it with a beautiful, underdone sirloin steak which enhanced it superbly.
Perfectly cooked sirloin steak
Partners in this venture are Tyrell Myburgh, Charles Back and Jose Conde and this is how they explain their purpose:
This MAN thing began with three friends and an idea: To make a wine that we ourselves would love to buy. Good quality, good value. Not exactly an epithany, but enough to motivate us into action. What do we name it? Keeping peace in the family we took the first initials of our wives. (We each have one wife, that is.) So that’s how we explained to Marie, Anette and Vicky that we were going to be “busy” most weekends. “It’s for you!” we told them.
Of course, we coulda just slapped another cute furry animal on the label, but thats been done. It’s time to focus again on what’s in the bottle. This is the opposite of a critter wine, this is a wine to drink with critters. Not too serious, but serious enough
MAN Vintners cab seems to have the unusual problem of high evaporation – the bottle was empty in no time, so easily did it glide down.
Tags: MAN Vintners
Since discovering Rust en Vrede wines at the Stellenbosch Wine Festival 2009, we have been huge fans enjoying the old world elegance and balance in those that we have tasted.
Rust en Vrede Merlot 2008
As a festive season splurge we opened the merlot to experience a complex nose of dark fruit with a touch of spice. This full-bodied wine has great structure but with subtle oak, ripe plum and and long finish.
We love the quotations by Thomas Jefferson on the back label.
Rust en Vrede Merlot 2008 sells for R130.00 ($18) from the farm.
In the long, dry days of Cape Town summer, a well chilled, crispy white wine is to me the perfect drink.
Groote Post Vineyards sauvignon blanc 2008
Sauvignon blanc can never be a great South African variety except for when it is blended with semillon, Bordeaux style. Local varietal wines vary from ripe fruit, easy drinking wines to more austere, flinty styles with green apple and lime on the palate, often made from grapes at high altitude and close to maritime winds.
Groote Post sauvignon blanc falls into the latter category. It’s well balanced and great as an aperitif because of the palate cleansing lime flavour. Selling from the farm at around R62.00 which is rather more than we would spend on an everyday wine, it is well worth the splurge.
Unlike Tiger Woods, pro-golfer David Frost has his off-course focus on less controversial, more gratifying pastimes. He has collaborated with Perdeberg Winery on the David Frost Signature Series range of wines including the shiraz 2008. This wine offers excellent value for money at only R27.99 from Pick and Pay.
David Frost Signature Series Shiraz 2008
It’s full bodied and typical of shiraz with the white pepper on a long finish, except that in this wine there is more up-front fruit . Interestingly enough the wine is unwooded and yet paired beautifully with our barbecued lamb chops.
David Frost Estate in Paarl also serves as the visitors’ center for the Voor Paardeberg wine ward.
Tags: David Frost, Tiger Woods
Whats what? No, I don’t mean “Hows it going”, I mean what is What?
Ok I’ll tell you – What? is a Woolworths varietal wine brand and we tried the sauvignon blanc. The label on the back of the bottle clears up some of the mystery by informing us that this sauvignon blanc is in fact a wine produced by Bergsig Estate.
What? sauvignon blanc
We paired it with pan-fried angel fish and a splash of lemon with baby potatoes and steamed vegetables on the side. Couldn’t imagine another matching wine for the menu with it’s crispy, grass and gooseberry notes on the nose and juicy pineapple, green pepper and lime on the palate.
Pretty typical, we think of a well crafted sauvignon blanc.
Tags: Bergsig, sauvignon blanc
Delheim, one of the original farms on the Stellenbosch Wine Route produces this excellent value, under R50.00 wine for every day imbibing. Swirl the glass for hints of spice and smoke underlying that characteristic Cabernet nose. There is a strikingly velvet smoothness with barely noticeable tannins – all components of this wine are in harmony. It’s elegant, medium-bodied and mouth-filling with a satisfying, lingering aftertaste with soft spice.
Delheim Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 2007
Tags: Delheim
Buitenverwachting Meifort 2006, a blend of malbec, petit verdot, cabernet franc and merlot, impresses with a myriad of bold, ripe fruit hues and earthy tones while the palate lives up to that expectation by giving mouth filling, satisfying, mulberry flavours with a hint of pepper. The finish stays and stays. Phenomenal value at only R49.95 from Pick and Pay and R55.00 from the farm.
Buitenverwachting Meifort 2006
Schalk Burger & Sons Meerkat Burrow 2007
Schalk Burger & Sons Meerkat Burrow Blend 2007 gives off notes of prune and spice suggesting a measure of shiraz in the equation. The palate confirms this but slowly the dry ripe cabernet sauvignon finish follows. A medium-bodied, accessible wine which is a steal at only R39.99 from Pick & Pay, it could arguably be the most underrated wine the Platter Guide 2009 earning only 1.5 stars. Have the Masters of Wine drunk so many bold, complex, knock you over wines that they have forgotten to appreciate everyday, affordable, quality when it is right before them?
Burrow in and let us know what you think.
Tags: Schalk Burger and Sons
Steenberg Catharina 2006, named for Catharina Ras, founder of Steenberg farm, blended from cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, shiraz with some nebbiolo, sails down the throat like a catamaran in full flight. All about this wine is perfectly harmonious, finishing seamlessly with reminders of white pepper, mulberry and pomegranate.
Tags: cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon, merlot, nebbiolo, shiraz
On the University of Stellenbosch Wine Evaluation Course 2007, I was lucky enough to win a bottle of Caldeon GP, Philip Mostert’s Dispore Kamma Syrah, but unlucky enough to find when we wanted to sample it, that it was corked.
Dispore Kamma
As luck would have it, a second chance came our way in the Hermanus wine emporium where we found the cabernet sauvignon 2006.
Presenting with a pleasing, characteristic cabernet sauvignon nose, the experience on the palate disappointed with sharp acids. Not a bad thing necessarily, going along with prominent tannins which will improve the wine with bottle age. The lush plum and sour cherry flavours will be more appreciated when this wine is say, six years old.
If only we had come away with a case to lay down which at R15.00 per bottle is a steal.
Tags: cabernet sauvignon, Hermanus
Not exactly your daily toot at R170.00 per bottle but a stunningly, magnificent Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 by Grande Provence, Franschhoek. The nose is anything but typical cab giving complex, minty and fruity aromas. The first sip will burst forth with a minty, berry flavours which remain as a long finish.
This wine has wonderfully integrated tannins and leaves the connoisseur anticipating the next marvellous sip. When you next have R200.00 floating about, forget the stock market – it’s in the doldrums – and rather elevate your spirit and taste buds to this new level of elegance.
Who would think that the illustrious, premium winery Glen Carlou could bring out such an affordable daily tipple? At only R33 from Pick and Pay, this chocolate, spicy nosed shiraz-based blend goes down a treat, with supportive tannins, nice mulberry and white pepper on a long, smooth finish.
A medium bodied blend, Tortoise Hill Red will not hit you like an express train and is yummy with meat dishes or as an aperitif.
Tags: Glend Carlou
Silky smooth, feminine Merlot with barely noticeable oak from a small crop on this Paarl farm. It went down so well that we forgot about the slightly extravagant price tag of R71.00.
Could probably still drink well in years to come but it seems perfect now and who wants to wait anyhow?
Tags: merlot, Seidelberg
Klein Steenberg Bordeaux 2007 is a fav everyday tipple from our backyard Constantia Wine Valley. It leaps out of the glass with notes of violets, mulberry, cigarbox and mint (must be that characteristic Steenberg merlot mint coming through).
Nicely balanced for early drinking and at R55.00 from the farm it won’t break the bank.
In keeping with the father and son sporting achievements of the Burger family, this wine is unstoppable. Prepare for a conversion for once you’ve tackled it you will have a hard time holding back. From the deep purple colour, to the body as full as Os Durant, with a long, dry, mulberry finish, this 60/40 merlot, cabernet sauvignon Bordeaux blend, will take you through to the finals.
Not to confuse sports, the wine is called Cricket Pitch and if the truth be known we drank only half the bottle in order to prolong the treat for another evening.
Tags: Welbedacht
An interesting aspect of wine buying, is finding in the low price ranges, anything from the shockingly bad to the sublime. Woolworths Longmarket Redstone Shiraz 2007 delighted us with it’s balance, accessibility and lingering, plum finish.
At R34.95 we will buy a case at a time.
Tags: shiraz
