South Africa is one of the most important wine producing countries in the southern hemisphere. With over 300 years of wine making history, it is often described as a bridge between the Old and New Worlds. The majority of wines are produced using New World winemaking techniques, but they often have more stylistic similarities with their Old World counterparts. Since the end of apartheid, South African wine has received international attention and recognition for its wide variety of styles.
The South African wine industry is spread across the lush and rugged landscape of the Western Cape. Here, the abundance of mountains, valleys and plateaus allows winemakers to produce a wide variety of styles. Wineries can also be found in the Orange River region of the Northern Cape, where the flat, arid landscape is dominated by the Kalahari Desert. Most of South Africa's wine regions have a MediterraneanClimate, strongly influenced by the meeting of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
The country's signature Grape is Pinotage">Pinotage, an indigenous cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsaut that is rarely found in quantity in any other wine producing country. Shiraz is also widespread, as are Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot (often combined in a Bordeaux blend).
However, white grape varieties account for 55% of the country's 96,000 hectares of vineyards. Chenin Blanc is the most planted grape variety in the republic with 18.
Cabernet Franc is one of the oldest red grape varieties in Bordeaux. The Libourne region is its terroir where it develops best. The terroirs of Saint-Emilion and Fronsac allow it to mature and develop its best range of aromas. It is also the majority in many blends. The very famous Château Cheval Blanc, for example, uses 60% Cabernet Franc. The wines produced with Cabernet Franc are medium in colour with fine tannins and subtle aromas of small red fruits and spices. When blended with Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, it brings complexity and a bouquet of aromas to the wine. It produces fruity wines that can be drunk quite quickly, but whose great vintages can be kept for a long time. It is an earlier grape variety than Cabernet Sauvignon, which means that it is planted as far north as the Loire Valley. In Anjou, it is also used to make sweet rosé wines. Cabernet Franc is now used in some twenty countries in Europe and throughout the world.
sparkling wines from the region of South Africa go well with generally quite well with dishes of veal, pork or game (deer, venison) such as recipes of veal paupiettes with mushrooms, spaghetti squash with cream and bacon or alice's rabbit.
On the nose in the region of South Africa often reveals types of flavors of citrus fruit, red fruit or tree fruit and sometimes also flavors of tropical fruit, non oak or earth. In the mouth in the region of South Africa is a with a nice freshness.
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The ambitious project named ‘Elements’ sees the launch of 1,000 meticulously handcrafted wooden presentation boxes each containing a different number and format of the estate’s wines. Taking inspiration from the shape of the cellars, designed by Philippe Starck and Luc Arsène-Henry and completed in 2016, these unique showcases house either two double magnums, three magnums or six bottles that have been specially preserved in the estate’s cellars – a detail marked by a gol ...
Personality. I can think of few parts of the world of wine that possess as much of it, alongside individuality, as Israel. Its story needs to be heard. Wine has been central to this land since before it was even Israel, and Judaism celebrates with wine for much of its ritual. Modern Israeli wine was born in the 1880s when Baron Edmond de Rothschild introduced mainly Bordeaux varieties to the region. Ambitious planting programmes took place a century later, and many Israelis studied winemaking ab ...
