News

Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service.

Writing about drinks has taken me all over the world – but few adventures are seared in my memory as vividly as the week I spent in Swartland, South Africa’s red-dust wine wilderness in the Western Cape.

By European standards, the wineries here are isolated: many lie at the end of long, axle-breaking tracks, on plots dwarfed by hazy-blue mountains. But the sense of community is strong. Whatever time I turned up, it seemed, there was always room for one more at the long refectory table at the heart of every household – and it was rarely long before someone was reaching for a corkscrew.

Jagged mountains and gnarled old oaks, the curve of a Cape Dutch gable, long rows of vineyards or fruit trees, a farm dam – these are the memories you’ll bring home from Tulbagh. In the Cape Winelands just a 90-minute drive from Cape Town, it’s a place to discover history and magnificent scenery, to explore things to do in Tulbagh.

Tulbagh lies in a bowl surrounded by the Witzenberg mountains to the east, Winterhoek mountains to the north – often snow-capped in winter – and the Obiqua mountains to the west. The town dates back to the early 1700s and is the fourth oldest in South Africa after Cape Town, Stellenbosch and Swellendam. Small wonder, then, that there are so many old buildings to admire. In fact, Church Street today has more Cape Dutch, Edwardian and Victorian provincial heritage sites than any other street in the country.

The word Champagne conjures up images of celebration and glasses filled with thousands of sparkling bubbles. Did you know that Champagne and Cap Classique (previously known as Method Cap Classique or MCC) are the names of a specific wine and not a style? Today, the 22nd of October we celebrate Champagne Day, let’s have a closer look at the similarities and differences of these beautiful wines.

As with any well-made wine, Champagne and Cap Classique are an expression of the terroir. Grapes are specifically grown where ripening is slow to retain acidity while allowing fruit character to develop. The acidity is the backbone that will keep the wine balanced.

Champagne is a region in France, northeast of Paris, where the terroir is a magical combination of chalky soils and cooler temperatures that sometimes keeps growing grapes on a knife edge. The French wine industry is steeped in tradition and guarded with strict regulations on what varietals can be grown where and how the wines are made.

Hollywood isn’t the only industry with an award season … Every year, as spring arrives in the Cape, the wine industry’s most notable competitions and Masters of Wine announce their annual picks for must-drink wines, and outstanding winery experiences.

While our wines have enjoyed continual success, we believe the real reward is in the enjoyment of the drinker. This year however, our wines have achieved some personal bests and Haute Cabrière was named amongst the Top 100 World’s Best Vineyards – so we’re taking a moment to show our team just how proud of them we are!

“Our spirited cellar team works hard to ensure that quality craftsmanship from vine to glass is always at the forefront,” comments Cellar Master, Takuan von Arnim. “I am enormously proud of all we have achieved as a team, and look forward to what the future for our wine estate holds!”

An up and coming new winemaking talent and academic achiever, Candice Nassen, joins Tokara on 1 November 2021 as Assistant Winemaker to Stuart Botha.

A double graduate with degrees in Psychology and Sociology from the University of Cape Town, and Viticulture and Oenology from the University of Stellenbosch, Candice notched up extensive winemaking experience at acclaimed local and international cellars.

On the local front, she completed three vintages at Cederberg, Boekenhoutskloof and most recently Boschkloof. During this time she managed to make space for a vintage in France at the highly regarded Domaine Yves Cuilleron in the Northern Rhône wine region.

A proficient all-rounder, Candice just aced The Business of Wine Course at UCTs Graduate School of Business with the highest marks of her intake.

The prestigious Great Wine Capitals Best of Wine Tourism Awards celebrate innovation and excellence in wine tourism throughout the eleven greatest wine regions of the world.

These awards provide an opportunity for these wineries and other visitor-serving businesses in each region to gain exposure and recognition for their commitment to presenting leading wine tourism options, while giving visitors a one-stop list of the best places to experience.

Now in their 23rd year, the 2022 Great Wine Capitals Best of Wine Tourism Awards saw a number of entries from wineries in each of the Great Wine Capitals Global Network’s member cities, in seven different categories, namely: Accommodation, Wine Tourism Restaurant, Sustainable Wine Tourism Practice, Architecture & Landscape, Art & Culture, Innovative Wine Tourism Experiences as well as Wine Tourism Services.

Year seven brings a brilliant set of results for Cape vineyards!

A stellar set of winning results now offers budget conscious wine lovers the finest wine choices. Brought to you by SA’s unique, long standing ‘best value’ competition.

This is the seventh set of Ultra Value Wine Challenge results; a proud and very special moment. The UVC competition identifies the very best wine buys that sell for under R130 per bottle. This is the largest price point sector in SA wine. It puts consumers in first place by giving them a trusted list of high quality, well-priced wines. They are currently available to buy right now, making the results both practical and useful. The Ultra Value Wine Challenge attract huge support from quality producers and vineyards, who themselves have built enviable reputations, based on tip top quality and affordable pricing.

De Wetshof Estate in Robertson is the first recipient of the WWF Conservation Pioneer Award, one of the accolades under the prestigious Great Wine Capitals Best of Wine Tourism and Wine Tourism Ambassador Awards. These awards, for 2022, were announced this week at Creation Winery in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley.

Sponsored by the World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF), the Conservation Pioneer Award intends to emphasise the critical role of eco- and social sustainability in the development and execution of a new generation of relevant and appealing competitive travel offerings.

De Wetshof Estate, situated in the Robertson Wine Valley some 160km east of Cape Town, is not only a world-famous wine farm, but has over three generations of ownership under the De Wet family been a leader of conservation and sustainability in the South African wine industry. The estate is now one of the 50 Cape wineries who are members of the WWF Conservation Champions initiative overseen by the WWF to recognise wine farms implementing exemplary programmes committed to conserving the flora and fauna on and surrounding their wine farms, as well as for their active involvement in producing wines to credentials underscoring sustainability in general.

No fancy stuff this time. After winning four Sauvignon Blanc Top 10 awards in a row with its revolutionary Winter Ferment Sauvignon Blanc, Diemersdal Estate in Durbanville this year nabbed its fifth consecutive Top 10 Award with the Diemersdal Sauvignon Blanc Reserve 2021.

From 2017 to 2020, Diemersdal’s Sauvignon Blanc Top 10 awards went to the Winter Ferment, a unique wine made from Sauvignon Blanc juice frozen at harvest and fermented six months later, a process leading to a distinctive tropical fruit profile. At this year’s Sauvignon Blanc Top 10 competition, it was the estate’s Sauvignon Blanc Reserve 2021 that took the laurels, a wine made to minimum intervention principles with the sole aim of expressing the terroir of Diemersdal’s Durbanville location.