The Best of South Africa in 2023

In 2023, we wrote several articles about individual wineries in South Africa as well as Report 95: South African Sauvignon Blanc & Blends. South Africa has many, many excellent producers, but you may need to do an internet search to find a wine store in the US that stocks the best wines. We’ve listed just a few of our recommendations below. Links are also given to some of the South African wine articles we’ve written in 2023. The photo is of harvest at Meerlust earlier this year.

Pieter Ferreira Blanc de Blancs Robertson: Pieter Ferreira is the long time chef de caves at Graham Beck, but this is his superb private label. South African sparkling wine made the champenoise methode is very good and very reasonably priced.  If you can’t find Pieter Ferreira, look for Graham Beck, Le Lude, and Villiera among others.

Alheit Vineyards Nautical Dawn Stellenbosch:  Chris Alheit is one of the country’s top producers of Chenin Blanc.  This is one of his most outstanding, but any Chenin from Alheit is highly recommended. Of course there are many other excellent producers of Chenin Blanc.  Look for David & Nadia, Ken Forrester, Mullineux, Rall, and others.

Duncan Savage White Western Cape:  A consistently outstanding blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon.  Other producers of excellent Sauvignon Blanc based blends include Cape Point, Cederberg, Nitída, Tokara, Van Rensburg, and Vergelegen.

Klein Constantia Perdeblokke Sauvignon Blanc Constantia:  A distinctive wine from this exceptional single vineyard parcel.  Another superb single parcel Sauvignon Blanc is Diemersdal’s The Journal. And there are many others; try Cape Point, De Grendel, Lomond, Marianne, Thorne & Daughters, and Trizanne.  And don’t forget Waterkloof”s excellent Circle of Life blend. And thanks to Waterkloof for the photo at the beginning of our December newsletter.

Sadie Family Pofadder Swartland:  A super-pure, refined Cinsault wine made from very old, dry farmed vines.  If you can’t find this wine, try to find an old vine Cinsault from AA Badenhorst, Duncan Savage, or Lukas Van Loggerenberg.

Meerlust Rubicon Stellenbosch:  A classy and classic Bordeaux blend.