The fortunes of top end SA wine in Europe are reflected in entries for this year’s Concours Mondial which are down over 20% to 184. This for a competition widely regarded as the most credible and which has attracted a record number of en...
The 20th edition of the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles kicked off in Bratislava this morning and this year’s fashion statement is beards. Here is US blogger Ryan Opaz modelling some porno topiary while my Panel #1 consists of judge...
“Makes you think!” was the informal response from the SA National Wine Show to the bombshell that there will be no award this year for the Franschhoek Wine Writer Competition. A special meeting of Exco will discuss the news a...
What a pity it was the Dutch and not the Portuguese who brought Bacchus to the southernmost tip nearly four centuries ago, for then in addition to Arinto, my favourite versatile white and Touriga Nacional, we’d also have regionalit...
Franschhoek, once the most media-savvy appellation in SA, has shot itself in the foot like the elephants they used to cull with cannon borrowed from the castle, back in the salad days when the place was called Olifantshoek. For F’Hoek ha...
Thought of Stellenbosch producer Anura at Esperão yesterday when I saw the frog Joana Vasconcelos made for them as a label. Portuguese ladies seems to be able to make anything from lace.
There is a battle being waged for the soul of Alentejo, that ancient land of cork oaks and olive groves that came very recently to wine and now lists Angola, Brazil and the USA as three largest export markets. In the red corner is Aussie...
The meaning of economic collapse becomes visible on the drive from the Algarve to Évora, the ancient Roman heart of Alentejo. When the government ran out of cash last year, they simply stopped building roads mid-bridge, repeating the sur...
After tasting the 2012 vintage of Vida Nova Rosé yesterday, a fruity blend of Syrah and Aragonez which was bottled last week, I say someone should bring it and Sir Cliff Richard to Cape Town. A spring concert at Kirstenbosch, perhaps? If...
Temperatures are soaring in Portugal and for once it’s not all brought on by global warming. Two UK-based wine personalities Sarah Ahmed and Jo Ahearne MW have approached ViniPortugal for help in selling a €300 pay-to-play advisory servi...
